A 7.9 magnitude earthquake just struck the southwest of Indonesia

Business Insider Tue, Mar 1 9:00 PM PST 

• Sign in to like
 
• Reblog on Tumblr
 
• Tweet

A massive and shallow earthquake struck on Wednesday off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a region devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, and there were early reports of deaths. A tsunami alert was called off, TV said. Neighboring Australia had also issued a tsunami watch for parts of its western coast and then canceled it. "There are some who have died," said Heronimus Guru, the deputy head of operations with the National Search and Rescue Agency. He did not know how many, but any rescue operation will be hampered by the dark, which falls early in the tropical archipelago. The epicenter of the earthquake was 502 miles southwest of Padang (which is in the West ...