Aljazeera English at West Sumatra, Indonesia
Safeguarding Sumatra
September 30 marks one year since a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Sumatran city of Padang in Indonesia.
The quake killed over 1,100 people, left thousands more injured and destroyed 250,000 homes. Yet experts predict an even bigger quake could hit Sumatra at any time.
Padang sits on an active fault line known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. These three volatile tectonic plates have caused more than 40 large-scale earthquakes in Indonesia over the past two decades.
One of them caused the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. But the toll from last year’s quake in Padang was blamed as much on human failure as on natural disaster with many homes and public buildings not meeting quake-proof regulations.
Filed under: Uncategorized, safeguards
