Powerful earthquakes shake eastern Indonesia. No immediate reports of casualties

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A chain of robust and shallow earthquakes shook a moderately populated island chain in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday. There had been no immediate reports of harm or casualties.

The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit a space 341 kilometers (211 miles) southwest of Tual, a coastal the town in Maluku province, at a intensity of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

It was once adopted by way of every other 7.0 magnitude quake in the similar house and two 5.1 magnitude aftershocks, the USGS mentioned.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency mentioned there was once no risk of a tsunami however warned of imaginable aftershocks.

Villagers within the Tanimbar Islands reported robust tremors for a couple of mins however there was once no panic, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesperson Abul Muhari mentioned in a remark.

He mentioned the epicenter of the quakes was once within the Banda Sea close to the Tanimbar Islands, with a inhabitants of about 127,000.

The nation of greater than 270 million other folks is steadily struck by way of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis as a result of of its location at the arc of volcanoes and fault traces within the Pacific Basin referred to as the “Ring of Fire.”

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude Indian Ocean quake prompt a tsunami that killed greater than 230,000 other folks in a dozen international locations, maximum of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.