The 2016 Sumatra earthquake was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck on 2 March 2016 in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

warnings were issued for

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, but were withdrawn two hours later. There were no deaths directly related to the earthquake.

Description

The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

stated that the earthquake struck Wednesday evening and had a magnitude of 7.8. Originally, the USGS gave the earthquake a magnitude of 8.2; this was later downgraded to 8.1, then 7.9, until the official magnitude was confirmed to be 7.8. The earthquake was centered under the ocean at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). It was determined that the earthquake was a result of movement on a

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

, and was similar to the

2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes The 2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes were magnitude 8.6 and 8.2 undersea earthquakes that struck near the Indonesian province of Aceh on 11 April at 15:38 local time. Initially, authorities feared that the initial earthquake would cause a tsunami ...

. The epicenter of the earthquake was approximately 805 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Padang, the capital of the province of West Sumatra; the closest inhabited land to the epicenter was the

Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands * Mentawai Strait * Mentawai people * Mentawai language The Mentawai language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Mentawai people of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Dialects Acco ...

, also part of West Sumatra. Tremors from the quake were felt as far away as

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, though no injuries were reported outside of Indonesia. About three hours after the initial earthquake (around 11:00 p.m. local time), a second, less powerful earthquake struck about 242 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of the original epicenter. With a magnitude of 5.2 and a depth of 123 miles, it was determined that this aftershock did not pose a tsunami risk.

Effect and aftermath

Initial reports of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami warnings caused many inhabitants of Sumatra and the surrounding regions to flee to higher ground. However, within several hours of the earthquake, the government of Indonesia had lifted all tsunami warnings for the area. Australian government organizations also lifted tsunami warnings put in effect for

Cocos Island Cocos Island ( es, Isla del Coco) is an island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 13 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Province of Puntarenas ...

, Christmas Island, and parts of coastal mainland

. The head of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, Andi Eka Sakya, stated that the "potential for a tsunami" was "very small", due to the fact that the epicenter of the quake was not located along a major fault or subduction zone.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Earth sciences, Indonesia 2016 earthquakes 2016 disasters in Indonesia Earthquakes in Sumatra Earthquakes in Indonesia History of Sumatra March 2016 events in Indonesia

Description

Effect and aftermath

See also

References

External links