The New York Times, March 27, 2005
Two Strong Quakes Rock Indonesian Island
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:25 a.m. ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Two strong earthquakes rocked Indonesia's eastern
province of Maluku on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or
casualties, the local geological agency said.
The first quake of magnitude-6.4 struck just about 40 minutes after midnight; the
second, measuring 6.0 magnitude, came at 7:40 a.m., said Benny Sipollo of the
Meteorology and Geophysics Agency office in Ambon.
Both quakes were centered under the Banda Sea, just over 150 miles northwest of
Ambon, about 140 miles beneath the earth's surface.
Ambon, about 1,600 miles east of Jakarta, is the capital of the archipelagic province
of Maluku.
A quake of magnitude 6 can cause considerable damage if centered near residential
areas.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to seismic upheavals due to
its location on the so-called Pacific ``Ring of Fire.''
On Friday, a magnitude-5.9 quake hit near Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh
Province, which was ravaged by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed at
least 174,000 in the Indian Ocean basin.
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company.
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