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Major earthquake hits Indonesia's Sumatra

Saturday, November 2, 2002 Posted: 0531 GMT

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia early on Saturday, Geoscience Australia said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The Australian earthquake monitoring organization said the quake was centred around 200 km (124 miles) off the coast from Medan, while the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) put its epicentre at around 1,545 km (960 miles) northwest of Jakarta.

"We may be lucky and there won't be any damage but there could well be damage," said Geoscience Australia seismologist Mark Leonard.

"That's very big," he said, adding the magnitude was similar to an earthquake that killed 20,000 people in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2001.

Leonard said the epicentre of the quake appeared to be around 60 km (40 miles) underground, which may have been too deep to produce a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake's depth at 33 km (20 miles) and said it struck at 9:26 a.m. local time (0226 GMT).

Earthquakes of that magnitude can cause extensive damage in built-up areas but the U.S. Geological Survey said no damage had been reported so far.