The GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck off the northwest coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Friday, noting that it was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles).
BMKG, Indonesia’s weather and geophysics agency, put the earthquake at 7.2 magnitude and at a depth of 19 km. The agency reported that the quake had no potential to trigger a tsunami wave.
On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of northwest Sumatra triggered a tsunami that claimed over 230,000 lives in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and 9 other countries.
Friday’s quake was felt strongly in Padang city on Sumatra’s west coast, a Twitter user, Siska Sasmita, said.
“We ran outside the house because the quake was felt for a pretty long time,” said Goris Tukan, a resident of Nias island, off Sumatra. Tukan said no damage was reported in his neighborhood.
Disaster mitigation agency official Filifo Daili noted that the quake was felt for 20 seconds and authorities were still collecting information about its impact.
