A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Simeulue, Indonesia, an island off the west coast of Sumatra, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. The Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center characterized the quake as "strong." The epicenter was about 255 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Medan, Sumatra, at 9:10 p.m. local time, it said. There weren't any immediate reports of damage or casualties, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Agus an official of the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics Agency.
A magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean devastating coastlines and leaving more than 220,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other countries. A magnitude 8.7-temblor hit the region in March killing about 1,000 people. Indonesia is on the Pacific Rim's "Ring of Fire," a zone of active volcanoes and earthquakes. Quakes of magnitude 5 and more can cause considerable damage, depending on their depth. Today's earthquake occurred at a depth of about 30 kilometers. The earthquake struck about 555 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur and 1,440 kilometers from Jakarta.
"Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along costs located within a few hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said after the earthquake. "Authorities can assume the danger has passed if no tsunami waves are observed within an hour of the earthquake."
Ya'll getting the message yet? Keep on preaching that jihad crap and maybe mother nature is going to wage her own little intifada on your pathetic @sses.