CHENNAI: Panic gripped Chennai when the city recorded two tremors in the span of two hours sparking a tsunami warning and an alert in nuclear installations and dams.Station director of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) K Ramamurthy told Express that the first tremor, whose intensity was 5 milli-G (one milli-G is one thousandth of the acceleration due to gravity) was felt at 14.15 hours soon after the earthquake with an intensity of 8.5 on the Richter scale was recorded in Indonesia (2.4 degree North latitude and 93.07 degree East longitude).This was way below 10 milli-G, which could trigger an alarm in the nuclear installation, he said, adding that the control room staff were alerted and operations were halted briefly. “We got in touch with Andaman and Nicobar Islands fearing the possibility of tsunami. But the Andaman and Nicobar authorities found everything was normal and the reactors began to function normally,” Ramamurthy said.The second tremor, which was felt at 16.15 hours after a quake with an intensity of 8.1 at the location 0.8 degree North and 92.4 degree East was trig-erred in Sumatra, was also below 5 milli-G and triggered a tsunami alert, wh-ich was withdrawn after Andaman and Nicobar authorities allayed fears.However, he said the nuclear establishment has adequate security safeguards and they were put on alert.Later, the director of the seismic unit in the meteorology department, W B Gopal, said that four earthquakes were recorded in Indonesia. Chennai residents felt the tremors after the first and fourth quake, he added.
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