Indonesia quake triggered by Dec. 26 mega-shock<\/p>\n
Michael Perry
\nReuters\/Sydney<\/p>\n
A huge undersea earthquake that killed hundreds in Indonesia
\novernight was a result of increased geological stress caused by
\nlast December's mega-quake that sent a devastating tsunami across
\nsouthern Asia, seismologists said.<\/p>\n
And they warned of a third big earthquake in the area sooner
\nor later.<\/p>\n
Monday night's 8.7 magnitude shock was centered 160 km
\nsoutheast of the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude Dec. 26 quake off
\nSumatra's northern tip. Geoscience Australia said the earlier
\nquake was two to four times larger.<\/p>\n
Like the 2004 tremor, the latest one was a vertical earthquake
\nwhere part of the ocean floor was thrust upwards by another
\ntectonic plate pushing beneath it.<\/p>\n
\"It appears to be the same plate boundary where the Australian
\nplate is slipping beneath the Sumatran (Sunda) plate,\" Geoscience
\nAustralia seismologist Phil Cummins told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Seismologists had been warning of a second earthquake off
\nSumatra due to the increased geological stress caused by last
\nDecember's quake.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's disaster center said around 1,000 people had been
\nkilled on the island of Nias, off Sumatra's west coast, which
\ntook the full fury of the latest quake, one of the eight biggest
\nin the world since 1900. The country's vice president said on
\nMonday morning that the toll could reach 2,000.<\/p>\n
Cummins said a third earthquake was to be expected because
\ngeological stress levels would rise further following the latest
\ntremor.<\/p>\n
\"There is a chance that the next segment further to the
\nsoutheast could rupture sooner than we expected,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"But we can't predict the time. Rather than 100 years it might
\nbe 20 or 50 years,\" he said, but added it was possible it could
\nbe in the next three months.<\/p>\n
Last December's quake generated a tsunami that hit 13 Indian
\nOcean nations, leaving more than 288,000 dead or missing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that Monday's quake was
\nlocated 2.065 degrees north and 97.010 degrees east. The Dec. 26
\nquake was located 3.307 degrees north and 95.947 east.<\/p>\n
Both quakes were shallow, at a depth of 30 km, which
\nheightened the chances of a tsunami.<\/p>\n
Australia's remote Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean recorded
\na tiny tsunami on Tuesday, with a 10-cm wave followed by a 25 cm
\nwave. Cocos recorded a 33-cm wave after the Dec. 26 quake.<\/p>\n
Hawaii's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which issued and then
\ncanceled a tsunami warning after Monday's quake, said early
\nwarning systems put in place since December had worked.<\/p>\n
\"The international effort paid off. It all went smoothly,\"
\nsaid the center's Dave Burwell.<\/p>\n
Burwell said the center contacted a network of meteorological
\nand geoscience offices in Asia who then alerted local communities
\nto the tsunami warning.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Geological Survey report on the latest earthquake
\nalso said it was \"likely triggered by stress changes caused by
\nthe December 2004 earthquake\".<\/p>\n
Before that disaster, the previous quake of above magnitude 8
\nin this area occurred in 1861.<\/p>",
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