New Separate 7.9 Mag. Quake Hits Kepulauan Mentawai Region, Indonesia; Tsunami Warning Issued
Mitch Battros
Dr. Das is a seismologist who received her doctorate at MIT in 1976. Das research in earthquake studies has been conducted in several broad areas of observational and theoretical seismology over the last three decades. We discussed "live" last night the very scenerios you see today. The major goal of the work is to understand the physics of the earthquake preparation and faulting process, and to predict expected motion at sites of engineering interest due to large earthquakes.
7.9 Quake Coordinates:
Geographic coordinates: 2.669S, 100.800E. Magnitude: 7.9 Mw. Depth: 10 km. Universal Time (UTC): 12 Sep 2007 23:48:59. Time near the Epicenter: 13 Sep 2007 06:48:59. Local time in your area: 12 Sep 2007 23:48:59. Location with respect to nearby cities: 198 km (123 miles) SSE (165 degrees) of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Tsunami Warning:
Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and sometimes a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located, usually no more than a one thousand kilometers, from the earthquake epicenter. This watch is based only on the earthquake evaluation. Authorities in the region should take appropriate action in response to this warning.
Due to only limited sea level data from the region, it may not be possible for this center to rapidly nor accurately evaluate the strength of a tsunami if one has been generated.