Shigeki Kakinoki arrives in Phuket, Thailand, on Tuesday where his daughter, Naoko, 27, is believed to have died.

Seismic waves produced by Sunday's killer earthquake off Sumatra, Indonesia, were tracked traveling three times around the globe, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, citing research from an observatory in Nagano Prefecture.

It is very rare for seismic waves to be observed repeatedly circling the Earth, which underscores the immense power of Sunday's quake, agency officials said Monday.

According to the officials, the Matsushiro Seismological Observatory's precision equipment observed repeated seismic waves from the temblor that hit Sumatra around 9:58 a.m. Sunday Japan time.

The jolt's waves that traveled northeast along the Earth's surface reached Nagano around 10:20 a.m., then around 12:55 p.m. on their second circling and 3:30 p.m. on the third.

Seismic waves traveling southwest reached the observatory around noon on the first circling, then around 2:40 p.m. on the second, officials said.(IHT/Asahi: December 29,2004)