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[SuperFly]

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Thursday, Sept. 13 � A powerful earthquake centered near the Indonesian island of Sumatra toppled buildings on Wednesday and set off a tsunami alert for the Indian Ocean. It was followed hours later by a second earthquake. At least 10 people were killed and 200 injured in the first earthquake, The Associated Press reported, quoting local news accounts.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the Commerce Department and seismologists working in the region said tide-gauge readings showed that the first earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.4, did generate small tsunamis that struck nearby shores, and that it might have caused some destruction along the coast.

A second earthquake struck early Thursday about 200 miles to the northwest of the first earthquake�s epicenter. The United States Geological Survey reported the second earthquake�s magnitude as 7.8. The Indonesian government issued a new tsunami warning in the earthquake�s aftermath.

In December 2004, a series of giant waves from a larger undersea earthquake thrashed Banda Aceh, a city at the northwestern end of Sumatra, killing 130,000 people there and tens of thousands more around the Indian Ocean. Scientists who have studied the area have warned that Bengkulu and Padang, Indonesia, on the Indian Ocean halfway along the 1,100-mile-long coast of Sumatra, were particularly at risk for powerful earthquakes and tsunamis as successive sections of the same shifting tectonic plates that set off the 2004 quake inevitably give way.

Bengkulu, a city of 1.2 million, was the closest large community to the two latest earthquakes. The epicenter of the first was 65 miles southwest of the city, the second was 125 miles to the northwest.

A wave of three feet was reported to have hit Padang about 20 minutes after the first quake, said Suhardjono, an official with Indonesia�s meteorological agency who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, The A.P. reported. But there had been no sightings of strong tidal waters two hours after the quake, usually the critical time for the formation of a tsunami, and the initial tsunami watch for Indonesia was lifted.

The warning center said Wednesday, after issuing the tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean, that the local authorities were responsible for making their own assessments about a potential tsunami. Tsunami alerts were issued by governments in Asian and African countries along the Indian Ocean, but the alerts were downgraded after several hours had passed without signs of a destructive wave. Within 10 hours of the first earthquake, tsunami warnings had been scaled down in India, the Seychelles and Australia.

But the authorities in Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh continued to warn residents to leave beaches and coastal areas, according to The A.P.

In Indonesia, the full extent of the damage was not immediately known. The initial earthquake was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which was measured at a magnitude of 6.6, Mr. Suhardjono told The A.P.

According to the Indonesian Health Ministry, three people were killed in Padang, a city of 800,000, and two were killed in Bengkulu, which is closer to the epicenter.

Some buildings had collapsed in Padang, witnesses told Reuters, while the Indonesian Metro TV said some buildings had caught fire.

�The city is in complete chaos,� one witness told Reuters. �Everyone is heading to higher ground. I saw one house collapsed to the ground. I�m trying to save my family.�

The undersea quake struck at about 6:10 p.m. local time (7:10 a.m. Eastern time), the United States Geological Survey said.

It caused buildings to sway about 375 miles away in Jakarta, where residents were evacuated from their apartments. Phone lines and electricity were cut.

Aid agencies said they were poised to offer relief, though they were having trouble with communications and logistics.

�We have partners and programming in these areas and are positioned to respond,� said Rich Balmadier, the country director in Indonesia of Catholic Relief Services, which has an office in Medan, Sumatra, and four other areas. �In some cases, we can�t get through, which is worrisome,� he said in an e-mailed statement.

Kerry Sieh, a seismologist from the California Institute of Technology who has spent several decades studying earthquake risk around Sumatra, said he had spent the hours after the first earthquake sending e-mail messages and making calls to residents and fellow researchers, including some members of his science team who were installing instruments from a boat near the earthquake zone in recent days.

�I am concerned about their safety,� he said in an e-mail message from Singapore. �I have been unable to reach them via satellite phone.�

In a separate telephone interview from Singapore on Thursday morning, Dr. Sieh said he had just received reports from friends in Padang that the second earthquake had sent waves into Padang Harbor and that people were fleeing the coast.

Dr. Sieh said he was very worried that worse was to come. The series of earthquakes, including the latest aftershock, are �like ants chewing around the edges� of a 240-mile-long section of fault off Padang that is overdue for a great earthquake the likes of which has not occurred along that part of the coast since 1833.

Earlier, Dr. Sieh forwarded several e-mail reports from contacts in the region indicating that coastal flooding had occurred in the Mentawai Islands, which are along the coast northwest of the first earthquake epicenter.

�This is now the third earthquake bigger than 8.0 that has occurred in Sumatra in the past four years,� Dr. Sieh said after the Wednesday earthquake but before Thursday�s. �It�s becoming a very significant cluster of giant earthquakes.�

Peter Gelling reported from Jakarta, and Andrew C. Revkin from New York. Seth Mydans contributed from Jakarta, and
Christine Hauser and Graham Bowley from New York.

[nautilus]

It was neither powerful nor destructive, and produced no tsunami.

Its only news value is that it brought back reminders of the previous one.

[RACETRAITOR]

Sigh...

I guess the Swedish are still enabling homosexuals again.

When will God's aim improve?