india

Updated: Aug 03, 2019 15:14 IST

There is no tsunami threat to India following the high-intensity earthquake in Indonesia Friday evening, a senior official said here.

According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), a 6.9 intensity quake hit southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia, at 5.30 pm (IST). “We had issued a tsunami alert after the earthquake. We have now issued an advisory that there is no tsunami threat to India due to the earthquake,” said S S C Shenoi, the director of the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

The NCS and INCOIS fall under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) provides tsunami warning to the countries in the Indian Ocean Region. The first warning was issued at 5:51 pm for tsunami in Indonesia. A second advisory stating that there was no threat to India was issued at 5:53 pm. In December 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 struck beneath the Indian Ocean near Indonesia off the Sumatra island, triggering massive tsunami waves.

The coasts of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar and Maldives were hit by massive tsunami waves that claimed more than 2,00,000 lives. Since then, the nations in the Indian Ocean Region evolved an effective tsunami warning system. The sea around the Indonesia islands is known to record high seismic activities.

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