ABC AUSTRALIA, 10/02/2005, 09:48:50
Powerful aftershock causes panic in Indonesia's Aceh
A powerful aftershock has hit Indonesia's Aceh province causing people to flee their
homes in panic and shelter in mosques.
The quake, which seismologists in Jakarta say measured about 6.0 on the Richter
scale, struck under the ocean, 100 kilometres southwest of the ravaged provincial
capital, Banda Aceh, late on Wednesday.
There was pandemonium in many parts of the city as people fled into the grounds of
mosques - almost all of which survived the December 26 tsunami.
In the Aceh district of Pidie, to the east of Banda Aceh, witnesses have described
similar panic, with people running several kilometres inland from the coastal town of
Sigli.
Aceh has been hit by more than 200 aftershocks in the six weeks since the tsunami
disaster, although most have registered under 5.0 on the Richter scale.
Meanwhile, British scientists have revealed the first pictures of the undersea site of
the huge earthquake that caused the Asian tsunami as part of efforts to find out
exactly what happened.
The three-dimensional computer graphics show a scene of devastation off Sumatra
with colossal landslides up 100 metres high and 200 metres long and fresh cracks,
hundreds of metres long, in the seabed.
The data for the pictures was collected by the Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Scott,
which has completed a voyage over the area in seabed affected by the quake.
©2005 ABC
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