Chris,

There could be a lot of "what if's" when looking at this series of serious seismic events.

Let us imagine what might happen next. An 8.0 hits the next weak link in the fault. More damage, more casualties and probably no evacuation. Should there be an evacuation? Though most people would probably say no, the right answer is probably yes. But as to how to facilitate such an evacuation that could be a little tricky, but I'm sure it could be done.

The difference between this location and a couple dozen others around the world is that there is no hot erupting volcano sprewing matter all over the place. If you have that, then you get an evacuation, but if you have a series of earthquakes breaking up the ground under the ocean you don't get any attention at all. I'm sure there are plenty of scientists and equipment there now, but even if they saw the worst was about to happen it would probably be to late anyway.

And looking north, the quakes are encroching on The Bay of Bengal, a place that is totally familiar with 8.0 earthquakes and a population that is very large. That may be more noteworthy to watch than Indonesia itself.

No matter, it looks grim in any direction.

By the way, do you have an opinion?

Petra