By Xinhua
Jakarta : A powerful earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale rattled Indonesia’s eastern Maluku province Thursday morning, but there have been no reports of injury or damage, officials said.
The quake struck at 8:22 a.m. with epicentre at 216 km northeast of the province and at 105 km under the seabed, said Anas Fauzi, an official of the meteorology agency.
“The epicentre of the quake was too deep, so the shakes were not felt in land,” Fauzi said and added that there were no reports of any damage or casualty.
In 2004, over 170,000 people were killed in Aceh province in the northern tip of Sumatra island after a tsunami triggered by a powerful quake devastated coastal areas of the province and other countries in Asia.
Indonesia is at a vulnerable zone, the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire” where two continental plates stretching from the western hemisphere through Japan and southeast Asia meet, causing frequent earthquakes.