Indonesian earthquake recorded by equipment in University of Leicester

On Wednesday a major earthquake hit a section of seabed under the Indian Ocean, about 450 km off the coast of Sumatra. A tsunami warning was issued to the nearby Indonesian region of Aceh, raising fears of a repeat of the 2004 disaster which killed 250,000 people.

Remarkably, this week’s quake was felt here in Leicester – in the basement of our Department of Geology. Hosted here at Leicester, SEIS-UK is part of the Geophysical Equipment Facility, a project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council which provides seismological equipment and training to researchers across the UK.

The SEIS-UK team just happened to be testing some equipment yesterday when the quake, which measured 8.6 on the Richter Scale, struck near the Indonesian region of Aceh. Thirteen minutes later, the faint vestiges of the shock registered on the ultra-sensitive Leicester equipment, having travelled through the Earth’s crust for nearly 10,000km.

Dr Stewart Fishwick, Lecturer in Geophysics, went on BBC Radio Leicester yesterday evening to talk with Karl Cooper (sitting in for Ben Jackson) about the quake, including the difference between this one and the 2004 quake which meant that Wednesday's event fortunately did not cause a tsunami. You can listen to that show on iPlayer; the relevant part is at 2h26m.