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Moderate earthquake strikes eastern Indonesia
A moderate earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
A moderate earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia today, meteorological agencies reported, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
The 5.5-magnitude quake struck at 4:27 pm and was centred 10 km (six miles) beneath the Molucca Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey and Indonesia's meteorological agency said. Residents in Ternate, the town closest to the epicentre, said they did feel the tremors and local officials said there were no reports of damage.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
A magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed more than 131,000 people in Aceh province and left a half-million homeless.
