Tsunami warning issued in Indonesia after quake
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tsunami warning issued in Indonesia after quake*
07/26/2007 10:43 Source: AP ©
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning Thursday after a powerful quake
rocked an eastern island chain, sending residents fleeing from their
homes, authorities and witnesses said.
There were no immediate reports of damage as a result of the magnitude 7
quake, which struck under the Maluku Sea at a depth of 33 kilometers (20
miles), the U.S. geological survey said on its Web site.
The quake's epicenter was more than 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of
Ternate city.
Indonesia's geological agency and the Pacific Tsunami Warning center
issued tsunami warnings following the quake. National TV stations broke
into their programming to relay the alerts.
"We felt a strong tremor for almost a minute, people ran in panic from
buildings, said George Rajaloa, a resident in Ternate. "Children are
crying and their mothers are screaming, but there is no damage in my area."
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval
due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of
volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed
more than 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and left half a
million homeless. Just over a year ago, another quake-generated tsunami
killed around 600 people on Java island.