Magnitude 7.7. Epicenter near Northern Sumatra. USGS reported the quake first, the damage appears limited to power outages. CNN just reported on it, Wolf Blitzer made a total idiot of himself (he said "epicenter depth 28 feet").
Quake info as reported by USGS - depth 28. 6 miles, location 2.236°N, 97.046°E. Quake occurred at 5:15 AM local time (6:15 PM EST). Technically speaking, anything less than 70 km deep is considered a "shallow" earthquake, but 28+ miles is pretty deep for a shallow quake, and this depth might mitigate some of the damage by spreading it over a larger area.
Update. USGS just changed depth estimate to 31 km, and magnitude to 7.7. According to The Australian...
A "destructive widespread tsunami" was not expected, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre told CNN, but a local tsunami warning has been issued and could affect coastal areas near the earthquake's epicentre.
Earth Times reports...
The quake reportedly panicking residents in various cities in Aceh, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quake, an official at Jakarta's BMG office said.
Crossing my fingers that it stays this way.
NOAA Tsunami Watch reports...
SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR
THOSE AREAS - WHEN DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST
TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE THREAT IS PASSED.
DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL
HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A
WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION
MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
Local tsunami warnings have been issued. NOAA lists no tsunami warnings for the US coastlines.
There was a quake in Indonesia last year, that one killed more than a thousand people and caused massive property damage, despite having lower magnitude (7.0). That one's epicenter was near Java. Almost the entire territory of Indonesia is within the Pacific Ring of Fire - the part where this quake happened, interestingly, is not. The killer quake of 2004 that led to 200,000+ casualties had an epicenter near Sumatra as well, but that one had a magnitude 9.15. Mind you, the scale for earthquake magnitudes is logarithmic, so a magnitude 9 quake is about 32 times more powerful than a magnitude 8 quake.
Here's the quake location map from USGS...
The extra marks on the map are likely from aftershocks - three of those reported so far.
There are no reports of casualties so far, but I've already contemplated donating to Doctors Without Borders, based on their work in the aftermath of the 2004 monster quake.
Update 2. I have to leave for a while, will post another update later tonight. Let's hope the damage is as small as it can be. In the meantime, follow this diary by Unenergy.
Update 2.1. Encouraging news about the limited extent of the damage (from AFP via Yahoo Singapore):
Officials in Sinabang and the Indonesian capital of Jakarta said there were no immediate reports of damage. Electricity was down in the Acehnese capital of Banda Aceh but mobile phones were working.
"Our personnel haven't found any damage in Sinabang," local police chief Dedi Junaidi told MetroTV.
Residents of Banda Aceh said they felt the earth shaking powerfully for about a minute and many fled their homes or piled onto motorcycles to head inland in fear of a destructive tsunami.
"People panicked and ran out of the house, it lasted almost a minute," an AFP reporter in Banda Aceh said.
"I saw a lot of people who live close to the sea using motorcycles to drive inland."
Update 2.2.
Image caption: A mother hugs her child outside of their house shortly after an earthquake hit, in Medan.
Image credit: Reuters.
Looks like this one was not nearly as destructive as it could have been.