National Oceanic And Atmospheric / EPA
Handout image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing the expected travel times of a tsunami centered on the location of an 8.6-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.
Updated at 8:35 a.m. ET: Tsunami alerts were issued for the entire Indian Ocean Wednesday after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks were recorded off Indonesia's coast.
Experts said a tsunami wave had been produced, but there were no reports of damage and it remained unclear how big the wave would be.
The quake struck in a similar location to the 9.1-magnitude tremor on Dec. 26, 2004 that triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing almost 230,000 people, nearly three-quarters of them in Aceh province.
An 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit at 6:43 a.m. ET, the USGS said; the USGS and Indonesia issued fresh tsunami alerts as a result. There were several other smaller temblors, of between 5.1 and 5.7 magnitude in the same area between 5:51 a.m. ET and 8:10 a.m. ET.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch - an alert category one level below a warning - for countries as far away as Australia, Thailand, Pakistan, Somalia and South Africa. Kenya issued a tsunami warning for its Indian Ocean coastline, Reuters reported.
The PTWC said in a statement that “sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated.” “It may already have been destructive along some coasts,” the center said.
It posted a series of estimated arrival times for tsunami waves for potentially affected areas, saying that if no major waves had happened two hours after those times then “local authorities can assume the threat is passed.”
“As local conditions can cause a wide variation in tsunami wave action, the all-clear determination must be made by local authorities,” the PTWC said.
'Remain alert'
Indonesia's Geophysics Agency said it had detected a rise in sea level of up to 2 feet 7 inches, Reuters reported. Tsunami waves are relatively small in the open ocean, but can quickly build up as they near shore or are channeled into inlets.
Indonesia's Geophysics Agency said it had detected a rise in sea level of up to 2 feet 7 inches, Reuters reported. Tsunami waves are relatively small in the open ocean, but can quickly build up as they near shore or are channeled into inlets.
Reuters TV
Residents of Aceh, Indonesia, make frantic phone calls after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake was recorded off Indonesia's coast.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told The Jakarta Post that the large aftershock "might potentially trigger a tsunami. Residents must remain alert."
A witness on Indonesia's Simeulue Island, near the epicenter of the quake, said the sea had receded by about 10 yards; water receding is a sign that a tsunami wave is about to arrive.
NBC News reported scenes of panic in Indonesia, with residents and even hospital patients fleeing buildings.
"The quake was felt very strongly. Electricity is down, there's traffic jams to access higher ground. Sirens and Quran recitals from mosques are everywhere," a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency told Reuters.
In Banda Aceh, Fauvan, who like many people in the region has a single name, told NBC News that when the quake struck "the buildings shook for three to four minutes - it was very scary."
"I immediately left the building and ran towards higher ground. A lot of people did the same. There were a lot of people in the street," she said.
She said she had now returned to the hotel. "It is quite good here now" she said, sensing the worst of the quake and tsunami warning had passed.
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency is sending a rescue team to Aceh province, and said electricity had been cut to the area.
Thousands evacuated
Several thousands people were evacuated to higher ground from parts of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands as authorities prepared for waves of up to 12 feet or more.
Several thousands people were evacuated to higher ground from parts of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands as authorities prepared for waves of up to 12 feet or more.
India also issued a tsunami alert for its eastern coast, saying waves measuring almost 20 feet high might strike parts of its eastern coast, causing panic and sending people fleeing onto the streets.
Hundreds of office workers in the Indian city of Bangalore left their buildings, workers there said.
India's tsunami warning center warned , which was heavily hit by the 2004 tsunami.
Reports on Twitter and elsewhere said Wednesday's first quake was also felt in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia. High-rise apartments and offices on Malaysia's west coast shook for at least a minute.
Evacuation orders were issued for Thailand's southern island of Phuket and another southern province, Phangnga. "The province has turned on the warning sirens and asked people all over Phuket island to move to a safe place," an official from the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Center told Reuters by telephone.
The country's National Disaster Prevention Center told NBC News that Phuket airport has been temporarily closed and flights diverted elsewhere.
Simon Boxall, a U.K. oceanographer, told Sky News that the danger would not necessarily be over if the first quake did not produce a tsunami.
"The initial earthquake may not cause a tsunami … [but] there's no reason why an aftershock, which could still reach up to 8 in magnitude, cannot still cause a tsunami," he added, speaking before the first aftershock hit.
Boxall told Sky that not all offshore quakes produced tsunamis and issuing evacuation orders every time there was one could start to "get very messy."
United States Geological Survey / EPA
A handout image released by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) of the location of an 8.6-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.
NBC News reported that quake has been rated as a '5' on the USGS MMI scale, which measures the physical intensity of an earthquake as felt on the ground. A strength 5 quake is defined as: "Felt inside by most, may not be felt by some outside in non-favorable conditions. Dishes and windows may break and large bells will ring. Vibrations like large train passing close to house."
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is on a pre-arranged official visit to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, announced that Britain "stands ready to help if required."
Area prone to volcanic and seismic activityIndonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
According to the USGS, the 2004 quake struck about 155 south-southeast of Banda Aceh at a depth of 18.6 miles. Some 227,898 people were killed or missing presumed dead and about 1.7 million were forced out of their homes after the tsunami affected 14 countries in Asia and East Africa.
"This is the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake," the USGS said in its summary about the 2004 earthquake.
"The tsunami caused more casualties than any other in recorded history and was recorded nearly world-wide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans," it added.
The most severe earthquake since 1900 was of 9.5 magnitude and struck Santiago and Concepcion in Chile on May 22, 1960, triggering tidal waves and volcanic eruptions. Some 5,000 people were killed and two million made homeless.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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