[Steve]

A major quake in the Indian Ocean has hit the coast of the Indonesian tsunami-hit island of Sumatra, triggering an alert across the region.
The quake was given a magnitude of 8.2 by the US Geological Survey who have warned it could cause tidal waves.

This has just happened and news is still coming in, there is about an hour or so before we will know for sure if this latest quake has caused another tsunami.

More infor and the latest news available from the BBC

[ppuga]

Hope this new major quake in Indian Ocean doesn't cause another tsunami, poor people living there. Hope they are prepared now, and the authorities make a call in time to prepare all the people.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by ppuga

Hope this new major quake in Indian Ocean doesn't cause another tsunami, poor people living there. Hope they are prepared now, and the authorities make a call in time to prepare all the people.

The problem this time is that is it apparently nigh time there, this will undoubtedly make the preparations for the possible tsunami more difficult although I would guess there will be less people outside. I don’t know if it is a good or bad thing. I really hope things don’t go the same way as last time; the poor people there have not had time to recover from the last one let alone prepare for this.

[Steep]

No big wave.

[Steve]

It struck just before midnight local time, with an estimated magnitude of 8.2, and caused widespread panic. But three hours after the tremor, officials across the region said fears of another major tsunami were receding.

There were unconfirmed reports of dozens killed by the tremor on the Indonesian island of Nias.

The quake struck between the Sumatran cities of Padang and Medan at around 2315 local time (1615 GMT) and lasted up to three minutes, according to Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Office.

Its epicentre was located at about 200km (125 miles) off the Sumatran mainland. Most people were in bed at the time and there were no immediate reports of damage, says the BBC's Tim Johnstone in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Reports from Banda Aceh say thousands came out into the streets, fearful of collapsing houses, while an official quoted by Reuters news agency spoke of "dozens" killed on the island of Nias
.
Communications were swamped, although some mobile phone messages were getting through.

Although many lives have again been lost, it appears that they have been luckier than last time and as steep has said the risk of a second Tsunami is receding.

[Pook]

News hyping up nothing again. There was no way that quake woudl start a tsunami. The quake struck near where the Xmas tsunami LANDED... there's a difference. THIS quake was only 200km offshore... far too shallow for a tsunami to develop. Tsunami develop when a quake happend in really deep oceans.. a supersonic shockwave travels unimpeded for hundred, or possibly thousands of miles until it reaches shallow water. There, it runs out of room for all that energy, and is forced, upwards, and slows down.. thats' when teh wave forms... just a few miles out to see. It can travel for thousands of miles, and you would hardly feel it pass you by in a boat.. only when it reaches land does it form a tidal wave.

This quake, only being slightly off shore, would never make a tsunami. The Xmas quake started WAY out to sea... which is why it hit such a massive area.

Bloody media going off half-cocked again I'm afraid.