2005 Sumatra earthquake

The Sumatra earthquake of March 2005 occurred on 28 March 2005 at 16:09:36 UTC clock ( clock 23:09:36 local time) off the coast of the island of Sumatra. The hypocenter was 2 ° 4 ' 35 " N, 97 ° 0' 58 " O2.076388888888997.016111111111Koordinaten: 2 ° 4 ' 35 " N, 97 ° 0' 58" E / - 4 km, about 200 kilometers west of Sibolga on Sumatra ( about 1400 km north- west of Jakarta ) in the Indian Ocean at 30 Kilometres depth, about halfway between the islands of Nias and Simeulue. In this area forces the Indian plate subduction along the Sunda Trench under the Burma plate or under the Eurasian plate.

The quake had a magnitude of Mw = 8.6. The effects were still being felt in the 1000 km from the Thai capital Bangkok.

The earthquake about 1300 people were killed, mostly on the island of Nias. The event caused in the affected only by the earthquake in the Indian Ocean region in 2004 panic and fear of a tsunami. For many regions tsunami warnings were triggered. There was, however, only wreaked the no great harm a three-meter high tsunami in Simeulue. However, the quake itself taught considerable damage on the islands of Sumatra, particularly on Nias.

Magnitude of the earthquake and its aftermath

The earthquake lasted about two minutes. In the twenty-four hours directly after the earthquakes, there were eight major aftershocks with a magnitude of Mw = 5.5 and Mw = 6.0. Under Seismologists debate whether the earthquake as aftershocks of the event in December 2004 should be assessed or if it were a " triggered earthquake ", as it was considerably stronger than the usual aftershocks along the fault. Was

On the Indonesian island of Nias off the coast of Sumatra were destroyed by the earthquake, hundreds of buildings and killed at least one thousand residents, of which 220 in Gunungsitoli, the largest city on the island. About half of the urban population of 27,000 people fled.

The earthquake was in a very noticeable Sumatra and caused extensive power outages in Banda Aceh, which was already severely damaged by the tsunami in December 2004. Many residents fled their homes and sought higher lying land on. The tremors were also felt on the west coast of Thailand and Malaysia. In Kuala Lumpur skyscrapers were evacuated. Less noticeable was the earthquake on the Maldives, India and Sri Lanka.

Tsunami

The earthquake sparked fears around the Indian Ocean in front of a tsunami, which is similar to the catastrophic tsunami of 26 December 2004. Warnings of a tsunami were by the by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA) of the United States operated Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the Thai government issued because a large tsunami was feared that would have moved in particular by from the hypocenter in a southerly direction.

The southern coast of Thailand, coastal areas in the northern states of Malaysia, Penang and Kedah, and the east coast of Sri Lanka were evacuated. Because of the confusion in the evacuation came to Sri Lanka ten people lost their lives. Also for the southern coastal states of India alert was announced. All these areas had suffered by the tsunami of 26 December 2004 significant damage. However, the earthquake caused relatively low tidal waves. A three meter high tsunami caused slight damage to the port and airport facilities on Simeulue and a two-meter -high tsunami was recorded on the west coast of Nias. Much lower tidal waves were measured around the Indian Ocean, most of which were detectable only by special flood measuring systems; For example, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 25 cm were measured.

The tidal wave reached the belonging to Australia Cocos Islands at a height of 30 cm, after which the island states of Mauritius, Madagascar and Seychelles warned their respective populations.

Humanitarian responses

Australia sent medical personnel and equipment to Nias. The Australian warship HMAS Kanimbla, which had only recently been withdrawn from the province of Aceh, was sent back from Singapore in the region. On April 2, 2005 one of the two members of the Kanimbla Sea King helicopter crashed with the call sign "Shark 02" on the island of Nias in the transport of medical personnel from. Here, nine people were killed on board.