Tsunami fears

Back on September 6 there was a media warning here, Next killer tsunami overdue. Over the past few days I’ve received a dozen or more email alerts from the USGS on a series of quakes and aftershocks around Indonesia. You can sign up for the alerts here.

Despite the damage from the quakes the feared tsunamis have not materialised yet. However in the densely inhabited Indonesian archipelago the damage is still heartrending:

(Reuters) - Aftershocks shook Indonesia's Sumatra island on Thursday, a day after an 8.4 magnitude quake, the world's most powerful so far this year, hit an area southwest of Bengkulu killing at least eight people and burying many more under buildings.

There are some incredible tectonic dynamics occurring on this side of the world, the Indo-Australian Plate, actually two plates fused together are beginning to break apart. Across the Indian Ocean a new sea is said to be forming, based on the Rift Valley in Africa and the Middle East.

Scientists say “the region experienced a magnitude 9 quake on average every 500 years. However, smaller quakes could strike every century. "There is no question there will, some day, be a large quake ... if the next one is a magnitude 8, it is already overdue.”

Well the next one was over magnitude 8 and we are watching with trepidation.