Russian TV: A huge tsunami, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude quake, rolled onto Japan’s east coast in 2011. In 2004, tons of water crashed onto Indonesia following a 9.1 quake. But no tsunami hit Sumatra Wednesday after a massive quake rocked the country. Why not?
Panic gripped Indonesia’s Sumatra on Wednesday: the government issued two tsunami warnings in three hours, as an 8.6 quake off the coasts was followed by an 8.2 aftershock. The wounds of the 2004 disaster, which took the lives of over 230,000 people, three quarters of them in Sumatra, were still raw – and many broke down trying to reach higher ground or fleeing to shelters.
This time, the tsunami watch was lifted. And there were two reasons for it.