Indonesia issues tsunami warning after powerful quake

A powerful earthquake struck west of Indonesia’s Sumatra island Wednesday, a National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson told Anadolu Agency.
"[It has] tsunami potential," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
The National Disaster Management Agency recorded the earthquake as having a magnitude of 8.3 and a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) around 682 kilometers west of the Mentawai islands of west Sumatra.
The chief of the Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics later revised the earthquake’s magnitude to 7.8 and urged citizens near coastal areas to stay away from the shore.
"We will keep updating the information. We keep on observing the height of wave," local television reported Andi Eka Sakya saying.
"The location of the quake is far enough from [coastal area]. The journey of the tsunami would be around 40 minutes," he added.
The tsunami warning will be in effect in the provinces of West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Aceh, Bengkulu and Lampung.
Channel TVR1 reported that the level of the warning had been lowered but not lifted, with waves expected to lose height as they approached coastal areas.
West Sumatra’s governor, Irwan Prayitno, told TV One that the tremor was felt across most of the province.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the shallow earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8, after also reporting magnitudes of 8.2, 8.1 and 7.9.

Indonesia lies within the Pacific’s "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern coast of Sumatra island, causing a tsunami that killed around 230,000 people as it tore along the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.