Strong earthquake hits off Indonesia's Sumatra, no tsunami alert

[News_Editor]

Strong earthquake hits off Indonesia's Sumatra, no tsunami alert

2011-05-30 05:06:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck off Southwestern Sumatra in Indonesia on early Monday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and no tsunami alert was issued.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake at 01.24 a.m. local time (1824 GMT Sunday) was centered about 409 kilometers (254 miles) from Bintuhan, a small town along the coast in Bengkulu province. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to Indonesia's Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the strength of the earthquake at 5.9 on the Richter scale, slightly below Indonesia's magnitude. The agency said it was unlikely that people in Indonesia felt the earthquake.

BMKG said there was no risk of a tsunami as a result of the strong tremor, which came just over 24 hours after another 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the region. That earthquake was centered off southern Sumatra and caused no damage.

Indonesia is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions also occur frequently in the region.

On December 26, 2004, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The 9.1-magnitude earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami, striking scores of countries. In all, at least 227,898 people were killed.

Most recently, on October 25, 2010, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck just off the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra. As a result, a wall of water killed at least 435 people on the islands and impacted more than 20 villages.

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