Strong 7.7 Quake Hits Ocean West of Indian Islands

A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Saturday west of India’s Nicobar Islands, triggering a tsunami watch in the Indian Ocean, according to the Unites States Geological Survey (USGS).

The epicenter of the quake was 107 miles west of Misha on the Nicobar Islands and 275 miles west-northwest of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia at a depth of 20.5 miles, USGS said. The earthquake hit at 1:26am local time Sunday (1926 GMT Saturday).

A regional tsunami watch was in effect for India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, according to the U.S. National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

However, it added, "it is not known that a tsunami was generated. This watch is based only on the earthquake evaluation."

There were reports on the Twitter microblogging service of the earthquake being felt as far away as Chennai on the Indian mainland.

In 2004, a massive tsunami hit Indonesia and other countries in the Indian Ocean rim, killing about 220,000 people, most of them in Aceh province in northern Sumatra.