The Jakarta Post, 9/3/2006 12:30:32 PM
Moderate earthquake strikes Maluku Sea
JAKARTA (AP): A moderate earthquake jolted eastern Indonesia, but there were no
reports of damage or casualties, a seismologist said. The temblor did not trigger a
tsunami.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, was centered deep under the Maluku
Sea, 86 kilometers northeast of Ambon Island, said Abraham Manusama, a
meteorologist in Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province.
Manusama said the tremor occurred at 22.33 p.m. local time Saturday but was not
strong enough to trigger a tsunami.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its
location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," a string of volcanoes and fault lines
encircling the Pacific Basin.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra
Island triggered a tsunami that killed more than 131,000 people in nearby Aceh
province, and more than 100,000 others in nearly a dozen other countries. (**)
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