Aftershocks won't stir new tsunami: US survey

Aftershocks beneath the Indian Ocean continued to rattle Indonesia but none have been strong enough to stir powerful waves, the US Geological Survey said.

Aftershocks beneath the Indian Ocean continued to rattle Indonesia but none have been strong enough to stir powerful waves, let alone spawn another tsunami, the US Geological Survey said on Wednesday.

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Waverly Person, a USGS director, said the agency is receiving inquiries from officials and reporters in the devastated Banda Aceh area about tremors they feel underfoot after a tsunami killed about 150,000 in Asia last week, but none of these have been powerful enough to cause another tsunami

"People are feeling these (aftershocks) and are concerned, but they haven't been large enough to cause intense wave activity," he said from USGS headquarters in Golden, Colorado.

The USGS registered aftershocks of 5.6 magnitude at 1454 GMT on Wednesday and of magnitude 5.7 and 6.1 on Tuesday, he said.

A tsunami generally requires an undersea quake of at least 7.5 magnitude, Person said.

The December 26 tsunami and the ensuing devastation that has gripped the world was unleashed by a 9.0 magnitude quake some 155 miles off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.