Strong quake jolts Indonesian island
Pastor Dale Morgan
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Strong quake jolts Indonesian island*
From correspondents in Jakarta
August 03, 2006 03:24am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook the Indonesian island of Sumbawa today
but caused no immediate casualties or damage, police and meteorologists
said.
The quake struck at 9.45pm local time (12.45am AEST) and was centred
about 300km southwest of Taliwang town, said Ms Fitri from the main
meteorological agency in Jakarta.
She said the quake, which had an epicentre 33km under the sea, was
strong enough and shallow enough to cause a tsunami within 45 minutes.
But police on the island speaking around 90 minutes after the quake,
said they had received no reports of a tsunami, nor of any casualties or
damage.
"Until now, no incidents after the quake have been reported to us," a
local policeman said.
The 6.3 reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now
used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that
ruptured and the total energy released.
A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake earlier this month triggered a
tsunami that lashed the south coast of Indonesia's Java island, killing
more than 600 people.
Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental
plates meet causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity, was the
nation worst hit by the December 2004 Asian tsunami.
Some 168,000 people were killed in Aceh province when a 9.3 magnitude
quake unleashed massive walls of water that reached 11 Indian Ocean
nations, killing a total of 250,000.