Photo Gallery Tsunamis Devastate Indonesia
German researchers have installed 10 warning buoys off the coast of Indonesia. The technology is prone to problems, but the buoys aren't decisive for a final alert. In this case the alarm system worked, but wasn't quick enough.
Up to eight-meter high tsunamis washed onto the Mentawai Islands near Sumatra on Monday, devastating everything in their path.
So far at least 400 bodies have been recovered on Mentawai beaches, a spokesperson for the West Sumatra disaster agency said. An additional 338 people are reported missing. Rescue workers fear the missing were dragged out to sea by the waves.
The earthquake off the coast of Sumatra was severe -- about 7.7 on the Richter scale. The bronze-colored line offshore shows the the edge of a continental plate; the line drawn inland shows the Sumatra Fault.
Some German buoys were out of order, but a quake of such magnitude trips an automatic alarm in the tsunami-warning center in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. Alerting the locals, by law, is a job for Indonesian officials. But the quake was centered so near the Mentawai islands that the waves were faster than the alerts.
Germany has invested 45 million in the project since 2005, with money coming from disaster funds set aside after the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia. German scientists have also profited from the system: The technology developed is now in demand on the market.
Studies by seismologist Kerry Sieh at the Earth Observatory of Singapore show that earthquakes off the coast of Sumatra have a domino effect. When one happens, it triggers further earthquakes. Sieh believes a strong earthquake may strike the region soon, this time as large as 8.8 on the Richter scale.
Local media in Indonesia report the tsunami waves destroyed more than 25,000 homes.
Australian sailors who survived Monday's tsunami celebrate their luck in the city of Padang, West Sumatra.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left an international summit in Vietnam to see the disaster zone in his country, where a string of natural catastrophes including tsunamis, earthquakes and an eruption of the Merapi volcano (in central Java) have left many dead.
