The Department of Meteorology has said there is no tsunami threat to Sri Lanka from a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck northern Sumatra in Indonesia on Saturday afternoon — the second strong quake to hit the country in a single day.
“There is no tsunami threat to Sri Lanka at present with the effect of the above earthquake. Therefore, the coastal areas of Sri Lanka are declared safe,” the department said. It added that the announcement was made in consultation with relevant national and international agencies.
Deep quake near Medan
The quake struck at about 4.24 p.m. Sri Lanka time near Medan, the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, the department said.
The US Geological Survey placed the epicentre near Pematangsiantar, about 126 kilometres southeast of Medan. No tsunami warning was issued for the region.
Accounts of the depth differ between agencies: the Met Department put it at 168 kilometres, while the USGS recorded 183 kilometres, Ada Derana reported. Either figure places it well below the shallow depths that typically generate destructive tsunamis, and no casualties or damage had been reported from northern Sumatra at the time of publication.
A separate event from the Flores disaster
The Sumatra quake is a distinct event from the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck off Flores island in the early hours of Saturday, which has killed at least 47 people and injured 50 in Indonesia’s east.
The Met Department issued a separate No Tsunami Threat Bulletin for Sri Lanka after that earlier quake. Indonesian authorities briefly issued a regional tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi before lifting it.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where several tectonic plates meet, and records frequent seismic activity across its more than 17,000 islands.
