CNN, Saturday, January 28, 2006 Posted: 0609 GMT (1409 HKT)
Undersea quake rocks eastern Indonesia
U.S. Geological Survey says no danger of tsunami
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A magnitude 7.7 earthquake jolted a 2,000-kilometer
(1,240-mile) swath of Indonesia for two minutes on Saturday, sending panicked
residents fleeing to higher ground, fearful of a tsunami, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of a tsunami, injuries or serious damage.
The quake struck deep beneath the Banda Sea about 195 kilometers (120 miles)
south of Ambon city in the Maluku Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its
Web site.
Hundreds of people ran from their homes in some Maluku cities and in the tiny nation
of East Timor, 440 kilometers (270 miles) to the south, said residents contacted by
telephone.
"We poured into the streets in panic and ran immediately to higher places fearing a
tsunami," said Salman Rumalesin, a resident of Bula, a Maluku mining town.
The quake caused cracks in some buildings in Ambon as well as in the Timor Hotel in
Dili, the capital of East Timor, witnesses said.
"In addition to Ambon and other towns in Maluku, the quake also was felt in Sorong,
Kupang, Waingapu, Makassar and Bali," Jusuf, an official at Indonesia's
meteorological agency who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told the
Associated Press.
Kupang and Waingapu are in the East Nusa Tenggara province while Makassar is in
South Sulawesi.
The quake struck at 1:58 a.m. Saturday (1658 GMT Friday) at a depth of 342
kilometers (212 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its
location atop a volcanically active region known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
A magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed
more than 131,000 people in Indonesia's western Aceh province on Sumatra island,
and left half a million homeless.
Three months later another strong tremor killed more than 900 on Nias and smaller
surrounding islands, also in western Indonesia.
Ambon is about 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Jakarta.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
