The Sydney Morning Herald, March 3, 2005 - 9:10AM
Indonesian earthquake rattles Darwin
No injuries or property damage were reported after a powerful earthquake off
Indonesia's eastern coast rattled windows and houses in northern Australia, police
and hospital staff said.
The 7.1 magnitude temblor struck late Wednesday and was centred in Indonesia's
Banda Sea, about 660 kilometres north of Australia's northern city of Darwin.
It began 190 kilometres below the earth's surface, seismologist Mark Leonard of
Geoscience Australia said.
The quake did not trigger a tsunami.
Northern Territory police said no reports of damage were received by late Wednesday.
"There's absolutely nothing," a police spokeswoman said.
"I've had no reports of injuries, no reports of evacuations, no reports of damage."
A spokeswoman for the Royal Darwin Hospital said that no earthquake-related injuries
had been reported to the hospital's emergency department.
Leonard said the depth of the quake was one reason why damage and injuries
resulting from the quake were limited.
"I'm sure it's rattled a few windows and shaken picture frames but it's unlikely to
cause any damage in Darwin," Leonard said.
"Normally with a quake like this you'd expect damage out to about 100 kilometres or
200 kilometres, that kind of distance."
The massive quake was centred nearly 4,000 kilometres from the epicentre of the
December 26 quake that triggered killer waves in 11 nations, but it rattled nerves in a
region that has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks.
© 2005 AP
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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