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Sat, 06:49 19 Apr 2008 GMT17

 
Indonesia earthquakes

Last reviewed: 13-09-2007

QUAKES IN THE WORLD'S LARGEST ARCHIPELAGO


An 8.4-magnitude earthquake shook Indonesia on September 13, 2007, followed by more than a dozen aftershocks.

  • A series of juddering aftershocks
  • Repeated tsunami warnings issued and lifted
  • Some 165,000 Indonesians killed by 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

    The 8.4-magnitude quake toppled hundreds of buildings and buried many people when it hit the island of Sumatra, while later tremors hit Sulawesi.

    Tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and lifted for Indian Ocean countries after the magnitude 8.4 earthquake - the biggest of the year anywhere in the world so far.

    Seismologists said the region was lucky to have escaped a devastating tsunami, similar to the one triggered by the December 2004 quake that killed more than 280,000 people - some 165,000 of them in Indonesia. In this case, there was a tsunami, but it travelled southwest away from land.

    Sumatra, with its dramatic canyons, lakes and volcanoes cloaked in lush jungle, is home to rhinos, elephants, tigers and leopards, although illegal logging and plantations threaten their habitat.

    Bengkulu in western Sumatra, with a population of 1.6 million people, is a mountainous province that attracts few tourists. It's a key area for growing the robusta coffee that's used to produce instant coffee.

    Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, was controlled by the British for several years during the 18th and 19th centuries, and later the Dutch. West Sumatra province is home to 4.6 million people. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

    Indonesia is prone to all kinds of natural disasters.

    An earthquake on the island of Java killed almost 6,000 people in May 2006. Reaching further into the country's disaster history, about 15,000 were killed by a 1917 quake, and 15,000 died during a 1966 drought.

    STATISTICS


    Average life expectancy
    2004 67.2 years UNDP - Human Development Report 2006
    Child mortality - deaths before the age of five
    2005 36 per 1,000 live births UNICEF State of the World's Children 2007
    Literacy
    2004 90.4 percent UNDP - Human Development Report 2006
    Transparency International corruption ranking (1=least corrupt, 145=most corrupt)
    2006 130 (joint) Transparency International

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    Passengers wait outside Komoro airport after an earthquake hit Dili April 19, 2008. An undersea quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck off the East Timor coast on Saturday, shaking ...


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