6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes off Indonesian island, no damage

[News_Editor]

6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes off Indonesian island, no damage

2012-01-21 05:24:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

KUPANG, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck the Savu Sea off the Indonesian island of Flores on early Saturday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. No tsunami warnings were issued.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake at 4.32 a.m. local time (2032 GMT Friday) was centered in the Savu Sea about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) southwest of Rinja Island, which is part of West Manggarai Regency in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. It struck about 124 kilometers (77 miles) deep, making it an earthquake of intermediate depth, according to Indonesia's seismological agency (BMKG).

Rinja Island, located close to the larger island of Flores, has no permanent residents. But the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measured the earthquake at 5.5 on the moment magnitude scale, estimated that some 924,000 people in the wider region may have felt light shaking.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the region, and BMKG said there was no threat of a tsunami due to the earthquake's depth and because earthquakes below magnitude 7 do usually not generate tsunamis.

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.

Earlier this month, on January 11, a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck about 423 kilometers (262 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra. A tsunami warning was briefly issued, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

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 the region. 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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