Tremor Jolts Aceh Province: Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

By Barrie | December 17th, 2006 | No Comments

Indonesia with more than 17,000 islands lies in a zone known as the Pacific Ring of Fire and is subsequently prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. A large tremor of 5.7 on the Richter Scale has jolted Aceh according to news sources.

A tremor jolted Aceh at around 4 a.m. Monday and forced the panic-stricken residents to rush out of their homes.

“I felt the earthquake was quite strong and the whole members of my family felt it, too,” Adek, a resident of Beurawe neighborhood, Banda Aceh city, said here on Monday.

Data on the quake was not available yet as there was no one could be contacted at the Mata Ie Meteorological and Geophysics Office (BMG) that morning.

Most of the Aceh inhabitants were still traumatized by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami which killed more than 170,000 people in Aceh and Nias (North Sumatra) on 26 December 2004.

Since the deadly earthquake, Aceh has continuously been jolted by a series of aftershocks.

In May 2006, Yogyakarta and some parts of Central Java were devastated by a 5.9 quake, killing at least 5,700 people and leaving thousands of others homeless.

Source: Antara News