Sumatran quake was on same fault line as tremor before 2004 tsunami

Yesterday’s earthquake struck along the same fault line as the tremor that caused the tsunami five years ago that claimed the lives of 232,000 on Sumatra, across South-East Asia and as far away as the East African coast. The island, ravaged by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 and a long-running civil war in the province of Aceh, had only just begun to recover.

Sumatra is the largest land mass in the Indonesian archipelago and the sixth-largest island in the world, at about 181,000 sq miles (470,000 sq km). It has a population of 45 million people from a multitude of ethnic groups, speaking 52 languages Most of Sumatra used to be covered by tropical rainforest, but economic development coupled with corruption and illegal logging has destroyed much of the traditional environment.

Yesterday’s earthquake struck 48 miles southwest of Padang, the third-largest city in the island, with a population of about one million. Though Padang is off the tourist track, it has become a popular stop recently for surfers heading for the nearby Batu and Mentawai Islands, and for tourists visiting the jungles in the Western Sumatran highlands.

Remains of the first people in Sumatra date back 13,000 years, but there was no significant settlement of the island until 2,000 years ago when people started to arrive in the west of the island.