Quake hits seas off West Sumatra

"PETALING JAYA: An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the seas off West Sumatra at 10.07pm."

"Its Seismology Division director Low Kong Chiew said the epicentre was some 653km from Kuala Lumpur and some buildings along the West Coast would get the tremors."

"Low said the department received some calls from Penang, adding that there might be a small possibility of local tsunami but it would not affect Malaysia."

"In Penang, some 1,000 residents from two blocks of the 18-storey high Complex Pulau Mutiara and five blocks of the 17-storey Pelangi flats in Gat Lebuh Macallum rushed down from their units after feeling the tremors."

(At least this one didn't strike the island.)

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/29/nation/10826127&sec=nation

Magnitude 6.3
Date-Time Thursday, April 28, 2005 at 14:07:34 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
Thursday, April 28, 2005 at 09:07:34 PM local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 2.20N 96.78E
Depth 22.0 kilometers
Region SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
Reference 230 km (145 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
255 km (160 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
555 km (345 miles) W of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
1440 km (890 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia


http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_xkat.html

...Daily reports of mag 5 and 6 earthquakes coming along the subduction zone (Where one plate is moving under the other) between the Australian plate and Eurasian plate....

6.3 is considered on the lower end of the strong scale. At 6.3, a quake can be moderately damaging in areas up to around 100 miles...a tsunami produced by a 6.3 would be mild at best, and would only pose a danger to anyone on a beach area within around 25 miles of the quake source. The greater danger would be any surface waves reaching land and collpasing poorly-constructed buildings.

With the distance from the mainland of the quake, there's minimal danger from the quake.

As 8.0-8.9 quakes are only seen on average once per year (already had one this year), and 9.0+ are only seen on average once every twenty years, 8.0 would be the worst case scenario, most likely, for the region (which means having a tenth less amplitude compared to the Dec-04 quake. and only 1/30 the energy release)