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A
major earthquake struck the island of
Pulau Pagai Utara in the Mentawai island chain, off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on
25 February 2008 at 15:36 PM local time.
It was centred just off the west coast of the
island of Pagai Utara, near Tanjung (Cape) Simabai and had a magnitude of Mw=7.0.
This is the strongest earthquake in this immediate region since
three events of Mw>7.0 on
12 and 13 September 2007, the
largest of which was a Mw=8.4. This event is also the strongest in
a swarm of moderate to large earthquakes that have occurred near
the Pagai Utara, Pagai Selatan and Sipura islands since 21
February 2008.
The earthquake
was centred
off Tanjung Simabai (Pagai Utara, Sumatera
Barat), Indonesia,
8.8 kms WSW
of Pasapuat (Pagai Utara, Sumatera
Barat), Indonesia,
24.9 kms SE of Katiet (Pulau Sipura, Sumatera
Barat), Indonesia,
53 kms SE of Maillepet (Pulau Sipura, Sumatra
Barat), Indonesia,
127 kms WSW of Airhaji (Sumatra), Indonesia,
131 kms W of Mukomuko (Sumatra), Indonesia,
185 kms SSW of Padang (Sumatra Barat), Indonesia,
291 kms NW of Bengkulu (Bengkulu), Indonesia,
386 kms SW of Pekanbaru (Riau), Indonesia,
628 kms SW of Changi International, Singapore,
874 kms NW of Soekarno-Hatta International, Jakarta (Java),
Indonesia.
At least 3 houses collapsed at Sikakap village and a school
collapsed at Negeri on Pagai Selatan in the Mentawai Islands. Many
residents immediately sought refuge on higher ground fearful of a
tsunami. At Air Haji on the coast of Sumatra, many people ran
outdoors in panic.
This earthquake has been strongly felt at Bengkulu, Mukomuko, Padang
and Painan on Sumatra. Elsewhere on Sumatra, it was felt at Jambi,
Medan, Pekanbaru and Solok as well as in many parts of Aceh and
Sumatera Uttara Province. On the island of Java it was felt in
tall buildings in the capital, Jakarta shaking hanging objects and
pictures on walls. Tremors were also felt as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
In Singapore, tremors were felt on Jalan Sultan, Marine Parade,
Marine Vista, Marsiling, Pioneer Road, Robinson Road, Sembawang
and Toa Payoh for close to 30-seconds. In Malaysia, it was felt
weakly in the provinces of Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and
West Johor. A local tsunami watch was
issued the coast of Indonesia but was later lifted.
This event is also the strongest in a swarm of moderate to large
earthquakes that have occurred near the Pagai Utara, Pagai Selatan
and Sipura islands since 21 February 2008. On 25 February, in
addition to the event detailed on this page, a Mw=6.3 event
occurred at 18:06 UTC and was followed by a Mw=6.6 at 21:02 UTC.
These followed a Mw=6.4 in the same region at 14:46 UTC on 24
February 2008. It is also too early to conclude if these events
ware in any way remotely related to an
M7.4 earthquake off the coast of Aceh
on 20 February 2008.
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References
01)
National
Earthquake Information Centre (NEIC), Golden, USA.
02)
Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor Solution (HRV),
Harvard, USA.
03)
Macroseismic information has been compiled by
the ASC from reports by local media and local NGO personnel.
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