Aceh rattled by 20-30 aftershocks every day

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Between 20 and 30 aftershocks have shaken Banda Aceh city and the surrounding area each day following the monster quake that rocked Aceh on Dec. 26 last year. However, most of the aftershocks were not felt by residents as they were too weak.

"The aftershocks were only recorded on the seismograph," said Eridawaty, a senior official at the Banda Aceh office of the Geophysics and Meteorological Agency (BMG).

The official said that the aftershocks mostly had their epicenters some hundreds of kilometers southwest of Banda Aceh and between 20 and 30 kilometers beneath the sea.

Eridawaty called on the public not to be panic despite the continuing aftershocks. People should also not let themselves be unduly worried by a recent prediction that another huge quake would hit the west coast of Sumatra island.

"There is no equipment that can predict when and where a quake will occur, so the people should not be overly worried," Eridawaty was quoted as saying by Antara on Saturday.

His call came after a recent prediction by a French expert that another big quake would affect the west coast of Sumatra in the near future.

The earthquake on Dec. 26, which measured 9.3 on the Richter scale, triggered a deadly tsunami that left some 129,000 people dead in Aceh only. The quake was followed by another big quake that hit Nias Island on March 28, which killed hundreds of people.