Tuesday, March 29 2005 08:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Los Angeles: Fears of a major destructive tsunami hitting Asia following a massive earthquake off the northwest coast of Indonesia have subsided, according to US-based monitoring centres.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake yesterday (Mar 28, 2005) was of magnitude 8.7 degrees, up from their initial report of magnitude 8.2. It makes it one of the top ten most powerful earthquakes in the last century.

The sub-sea epicentre was located some 205 kilometres west of Sibolga on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra and 245 kilometres southwest of the Sumatra city of Medan.

The earthquake was the biggest aftershock since the December 26 quake in the same region that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and caused a tidal wave that killed 2,73,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean.

The Hawaii-based US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a branch of the US National Weather Service, issued a bulletin more than two hours after the quake struck saying there has been "no major tsunami observed near the epicentre."

The danger of a "major destructive tsunami should be over now," said Dr Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center, also based in Hawaii.

"There have been tsunamis recorded as a result of the quake, but apparently they were not destructive.

"Generally, if nothing happens within two to three hours, then the worst of the danger has passed, which appears to be the case now," she said.

But Kong stressed that areas closer to the quake's epicentre off Sumatra may have suffered as yet unreported damage.