A strong earthquake rattled parts of Indonesia's Sumatra island Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, an official said.

Powerful earthquakes and aftershocks continue to shake Indonesia's western Sumatra island, forcing jittery residents to camp outside their homes two days after the first powerful quake struck.

A total of 41 earthquakes with magnitude of over 4.5 on the Richter scale have hit Indonesia in the last 24 hours, the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said Thursday.

A powerful earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia's West Sumatra island, shaking buildings as far away as Singapore and triggering tsunami warnings throughout the region. Scientists measured the quake at a magnitude of 7.9.

The Los Angeles basin appears to be in a seismic “lull” characterized by relatively smaller and infrequent earthquakes, according to a study in the September issue of Geology.

Accurate seismic hazard assessments depend on deep knowledge of fault dynamics and motion during earthquakes.

The massive 9.2-magnitude Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004 generated a tsunami that propagated throughout the Indian Ocean, killing more than 250,000 people.

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake generated a catastrophic tsunami that caused heavy damage and fatalities in coastal areas around the Indian Ocean.

A 3.9 magnitude temblor recorded at the time of a mine collapse in southern Utah on Monday, Aug. 6, was not from an earthquake, but more likely the result of the collapse itself, according to an analysis by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists.

A reversal of tectonic plate motion between Acapulco and Mexico City in the last half of 2006 probably didn't ease seismic strain in the region or the specter of a major earthquake anticipated there in the coming decades, says a University of Colorado at Boulder professor.

A leading expert today repeated his assertion that an Indonesian mud volcano was almost certainly manmade despite a new study claiming the eruption might have been triggered by an earthquake.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the world's largest nuclear plant on Monday, July 16, causing a transformer fire. Since then, revelations have been coming out about spills and leaks at the plant.