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INDONESIA-EARTHQUAKE
Strong 6.2 magnitude quake strikes off eastern Indonesia
KUPANG, Indonesia, Aug 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A strong 6.2 magnitude
earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey
said, but there was no tsunami warning or immediate reports of damage.
The offshore tremor struck at a shallow depth of eight kilometres (five
miles), about 100 kilometres southeast of Kupang on the Indonesian portion of
Timor island, the USGS said.
It was followed by a shallow 5.6 magnitude quake nearby.
Witnesses described a powerful jolt from the first tremor which lasted a
few seconds.
“I was on the second floor of my office and suddenly everybody ran outside
because of the earthquake,” said an AFP reporter in Kupang.
“All the chairs were shaking… we were traumatised by all the earthquakes
in Lombok.”
A string of deadly earthquakes that rocked Lombok island this summer killed
some 555 people.
Indonesia’s disaster agency said things had quickly returned to normal.
“Local disaster mitigation agency officials are still monitoring the impact
of the earthquake,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a
statement.
“There are no victims or damage.”
Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the
so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of
the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the
coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries
around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 Indonesians.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1445 hrs