Indonesia Lifts Tsunami Warning Issued After Powerful Quake
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Indonesia lifted a tsunami warning issued Wednesday after a powerful earthquake off Sumatra sent islanders rushing to high ground.
The U.S. Geological Service said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8. It was centered under the ocean at a depth of 24 kilometers (15 miles), it said.
Shallow earthquakes are more likely to cause damage, but the USGS said the quake was located far from land, about 659 kilometers (409 miles) from the town of Muara Siberut.
Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said no damage or casualties were reported so far, but panicked people in several cities and villages on Sumatra island and in the Mentawai island chain fled to higher elevations.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines circling the Pacific Basin.
A massive magnitude-9.1 quake off Indonesia in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Most of the deaths were in Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra.
The 2004 tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands was an extremely traumatic event and today’s warning will have reignited memories of that day despite the fact no one was hurt. This news overshadowed what was otherwise a positive day for the Jakarta Composite. The Index continues to bounce from the region of the 2013 lows near 4000. A sustained move back below the trend mean would now be required to question medium-term potential for continued higher to lateral ranging.
The Widodo government has introduced a number of important economic reforms over the last few years that may now be bearing fruit. The fact that industrial metal and energy prices have found support should also act as a tailwind for the economy.
The central bank stepped in to support the Rupiah last October and it has now strengthened to break the Dollar’s progression of higher reaction lows. Following such a lengthy and pronounced downtrend, the Rupiah’s strength should begin to reignite foreign investor interest in Indonesia.