Tsunami hits Indonesia after 7.5 magnitude earthquake

Sulawesi (Indonesia), Sep 28: A spokesman for Indonesia's geophysics agency says that one person has been killed after a powerful Sulawesi earthquake caused a tsunami, apparently after the agency lifted a tsunami warning.

Indonesian TV showed a smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting the provincial capital, Palu, with people screaming and running in fear.

It was the second quake to strike the area Friday.

Eastern Indonesia is characterized by complex tectonics in which motions of numerous small microplates are accommodating large-scale convergence between the Australia, Sunda, Pacific, and Philippine Sea plates.

At the location of the earthquake, the Sunda plate moves south with respect to Molucca Sea plate at a velocity of about 30 mm/year.

As per the USGS tectonic summary, earthquake was also preceded by a series of small-to-moderate sized earthquakes over the hours leading up to this event; the USGS located 4 other earthquakes of M 4.9 and larger in the epicentral region, beginning with a M 6.1 earthquake three hours earlier and just to the south of the M 7.5 event.