6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Indonesia

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's remote Maluku islands Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The strong quake hit at a relatively shallow depth of 31 kilometres (20 miles), about 127 kilometres southwest of the city of Ternate.

Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

"It was a decent shake, but people weren't panicking," said Ternate resident Nasarudin Amin.

"There are warnings about potential aftershocks."

Indonesia experiences frequent quakes due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In January, more than 100 people were killed and thousands left homeless by the 6.2-magnitude quake that struck Indonesia's Sulawesi island, reducing buildings to a tangled mass of twisted metal and chunks of concrete in the seaside city of Mamuju.

A powerful quake shook the island of Lombok in 2018 and several more tremors followed over the next couple of weeks, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighbouring Sumbawa.

Later that year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

In 2004, a devastating tremor measuring 9.1 magnitude struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.

The Boxing Day catastrophe was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, and lifted the ocean floor in some places by 15 metres.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Strong quakes rattle two regions of China
Beijing (AFP) May 21, 2021
A series of strong earthquakes rattled northwest and southwest China, leaving at least two people dead, local officials and seismologists said early Saturday. Both Qinghai province in the northwest on the Tibetan plateau and Yunnan province in southwestern China are areas prone to earthquakes. And both tremors were shallow, meaning they generally cause more damage. The Yunnan quake, which had a magnitude of 6.1, struck first at 9:48 pm Friday (1348 GMT) near the city of Dali, a popular tourist ... read more