A huge earthquake hit the island of Sumatra in Indonesia yesterday afternoon. The 7.7 magnitude quake caused widespread panic, blackouts and triggered tsunami warnings in both Indonesia and Thailand. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties attributed to the quake.

Officials said that the intense earthquake lasted for about a minute, then followed by approximately three small after shocks. Locals didn’t take any chances once the quake hit, many scrambled inland and headed for higher ground to try and avoid a possible tsunami. The island experienced a similar magnitude quake about six months ago, which caused the deaths of over 1000 people.

According to the USGS, this quake fell somewhere between “very strong” and “severe” on their perceived shaking scale. Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire, were 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur. Experts are predicting an earthquake will hit Sumatra that rivals the 9.3 magnitude quake of 2004, which killed over 200,000 people.

A strong earthquake also hit New Guinea today. There are no reports whether or not this 6.0 magnitude quake has caused any damage yet.

Search Tags: disaster, Earthquake, Indonesia, New Guinea, Sumatra, Thailand, Tsunami

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