Panic as quake jolts Indonesia
2005-03-02 15:42
Jakarta - A strong undersea earthquake measuring at least 6.5 on the Richter scale sparked panic when it jolted three eastern Indonesian provinces, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, meteorologists said on Wednesday.
They said the quake was unlikely to cause a tsunami like the one which devastated westernmost Aceh province in December.
"It is highly unlikely the quake could trigger a tsunami since its focus is located too deep under the sea.
"We have not received any reports of tsunami over the last two hours," said Suyanto of the meteorology office in Jakarta.
"No tsunami can be expected of an earthquake which occurs 100km or more below," an official of the Japanese metereological agency said.
The quake occurred at 17:42 (10:42 GMT) with its epicentre in the Banda Sea about 320km southwest of the town of Tual on Kai Kecil island in the Malukus, formerly known as the "Spice Islands", officials said.
The French Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg recorded the earthquake at 7.1 points on the Richter scale.
Authorities in Australia said the quake measured 7.5 while Japanese seismologists recorded it at 7.2.
Strasbourg's observatory said the quake hit at 10:41 GMT, and had its epicentre about 300km northeast of Timor island.
The Indonesian meteorology agency said the tremor was felt in the coastal towns of Jayapura, Sorong, Merauke and Manokwari on easternmost Papua province, as well as in Ambon city in Maluku province.
Residents in the coastal town of Waingapu in East Nusa Tenggara province also experienced earth movements.
A policeman in Jayapura, Suryadi Diaz, told AFP that the quake was "hardly felt" and no casualties or damage had been reported following the tremor.
A soldier on duty in Ambon also said that he had not received reports of death or destructions from town residents.
The shaking lasted between five and 10 seconds, according to witnesses interviewed on radio.
Residents of several towns rushed outside their homes in panic, they said.
Two consecutive earthquakes measuring at 3.7 and 5.0 on the Richter scale shook the resort island of Bali earlier on Tuesday.
More than 230 000 people are believed to have died in Indonesia's Aceh province when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake unleashed a tsunami that devastated the coastline in December.
Indonesia is regularly jolted by earthquakes, caused by massive friction between tectonic plates shifting deep below the archipelago.
- AFP