An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the open Richter scale shook eastern Indonesia this Wednesday, but so far no victims or damage have been reported and no tsunami warning has been issued.
The earthquake was recorded at 11:38 a.m. (03:38 a.m. in Lisbon), indicated the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The epicenter was located off the province of North Maluku, 94 kilometers from Tobelo, inhabited by about 34,000 people, while the hypocenter was recorded at a depth of 116 kilometers, the USGS added.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said there was no danger of a potential tsunami, but warned of the impact of possible aftershocks.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago with more than 270 million inhabitants, is located on the so-called ‘ring of fire’ of the Pacific, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity, where thousands of earthquakes are recorded every year, most of them of magnitude weak to moderate, and with about 120 active volcanoes.
On November 21, 2022, an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the open Richter scale, recorded near the city of Cianjur, on the island of Java, killed at least 331 people. The earthquake destroyed many buildings and caused several landslides.
It was the deadliest earthquake in Indonesia since September 2018, when an earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island killed more than 4,300 people in the country.
In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in the Indonesian province of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
Source: TSF
