Last night's earthquake off the coast of Sumatra was known to be one of the biggest quakes during the last few years. However, it was unable to trigger giant waves as its former did on the 26th of December last year.

The quake had an epicenter around hundred miles south of that of the last December’s quake. However, given all the conditions there were enough reasons to expect a giant waves hitting nearby coastal areas. But, it appeared that the quake's epicenter was much deeper which resulted in a less surface effect and it apparently did not release enough energy to cause slippage in the sea floor.

According to measurements, the quake had indeed generated waves within the ocean. However, the resulted tsunamis were much smaller and its effects were hardly noticeable. It's said that tide gauges in the Maldives and Cocos islands in the Indian Ocean recorded waves of between 20cm and 50cm, that’s between 8 to 20 inches.

Even though the ritcher scale may have misled many, last nights quake was almost 12-15 times smaller than the Boxing Day quake. Hence, it somewhat explains of its after effects. But that did not take away the probability of the damages that an earthquake which lasted for up to three minutes could have possibly caused. Hundreds have known to have died in Nias and Simeulue islands where casualties have been estimated not by body count, rather by the damages caused to buildings.

The death toll will rise, because we have not managed to evacuate many buildings and there are many dead people there.

It's known that around 80% of buildings had been affected in Gunung Sitoli, the main town in the island of Nias. Also most of the roads have collapsed and water supplies & electricity lines have failed, leaving 20,000 people stranded. Aid workers, including UN teams, are already onsite trying to analyze and moderate the conditions.

Most of the causalities from this quake are survivors of the last tsunami. Their 3 months old torment was suddenly wiped out in the dark by another similar event. Whether it appeased their pain or worsened it, I do not know. But I doubt those who have been left behind would consider their homes a resting place anymore.