UPDATE 1 -- Powerful earthquake strikes off Indonesian island, no tsunami warning

UPDATE 1 -- Powerful earthquake strikes off Indonesian island, no tsunami warning

2011-06-13 22:02:40 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) -- A powerful earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on late Monday evening, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake at 10.31 p.m. local time (1431 GMT) was centered about 178 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of Bitung, a city on the northern coast of Sulawesi. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to Indonesia's seismological agency (BMKG).

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the strength of the earthquake at 6.2 on the Richter scale, lower than Indonesia's estimate. The USGS said it did not expect serious damage or casualties, but around 3,000 people may have perceived moderate shaking while 3.1 million others may have felt light shaking.

Neither BMKG nor the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert following the earthquake. "[The earthquake has] no tsunami potential," a brief text message from BMKG said, giving no other details.

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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