8.6 Magnitude Earthquake Reported off Indonesia's Northern Aceh Province

Posted on April 11, 2012

An earthquake of at least 8.6 manitude was reported off Indonesia's northern Aceh province. The USGS has it listed here as an 8.6. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center calls it an 8.7 in its tsunami watch. A watch was issued for the entire Indian Ocean. CNN reports that a warning has been put out by the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

The BBC reports some good news. The BBC says Bruce Presgrave of the USGS tells them the earth moved horizontally during the earthquake and not vertically. This should mean large volumes of water were not displaced by the earthquake. Presgrave says, "We can't rule out the possibility, but horizontal motion is less likely to produce a destructive tsunami."

The BBC also reports that the earthquake was felt in Singapore, Thailand and India. The USGS has a PAGER map here that shows the estimated population exposure to the earthquake shaking.



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