Magnitude 7.3 - SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2004 July 25 14:35:18 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A major earthquake occurred at 14:35:18 (UTC) on Sunday, July 25, 2004. The magnitude 7.3 event has been located in SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude 7.3 Date-Time Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 14:35:18 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 9:35:18 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 2.455°S, 103.977°E Depth 576 km (357.9 miles) set by location program Region SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA Distances 105 km (65 miles) NW of Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia 105 km (65 miles) SSE of Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia 415 km (255 miles) S of SINGAPORE 510 km (315 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.1 km (3.2 miles); depth fixed by location program Parameters Nst=334, Nph=334, Dmin=201.3 km, Rmss=0.86 sec, Gp= 40°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=S Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) Event ID uslial Felt Reports Felt (IV) at Bengkulu and (III) at Padangpanjang. Felt (III) at Bandung, Bogor, Sawahan and Sukabumi; (II) at Jakarta, Java. Also felt (III) at Mataram, Lombok. Felt throughout Bali, Java, Lombok and Sumatra. Also felt in southern Johor, Malaysia and on Singapore.

The earthquake occurred deep beneath the island of Sumatra, which is one of many islands in the large Indonesian island-arc system. Off the southwest coast of Sumatra, the Indo-Australian Plate subducts northwards beneath the Eurasian Plate at a rate of about 6 cm/yr. At the earth's surface, the boundary between the plates is marked by the 3400 km long Java (Sunda) Trench. The subducted Indo-Australian plate has previously been known to be seismically active to a depth of about 650 km beneath Java, but this magnitude 7.3 earthquake is one of the few to occur below 300 km beneath the island of Sumatra. Due to the earthquake's depth it was felt over a large area, but caused little damage.

Location Maps: NEIC Maps Did you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location. You can also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others. NEIC Moment Tensor Solution Historical Moment Tensor Solutions Seismic Hazard Map Historical Seismicity Theoretical P-Wave Travel Times Phase Data Seismic Record Section Magnitude 7 and Greater Earthquakes This Year Earthquake Summary Map News Release Earthquake Information for INDONESIA Archive of newsworthy events

News Links Strong earthquake hits Indonesia's Sumatra Locals flee homes as quake hits Powerful Earthquake Shakes Sumatra

For more information, go to http://neic.usgs.gov/ || Contacts

The official magnitude for this earthquake is indicated at the top of this page. This was the best available estimate of the earthquake's size, at the time that this page was created. Other magnitudes associated with web pages linked from here are those determined at various times following the earthquake with different types of seismic data. Although, given the data used, they are legitimate estimates of magnitude, they are not considered the official magnitude.

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Last modification: Wednesday, 15-Oct-2003 13:48
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