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Magnitude-6.1 quake strikes off eastern Indonesia

13 July 2011 00:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An undersea earthquake with magnitude-6.1 jolted Maluku province in eastern part of Indonesia early Wednesday, but no potential of tsunami and casualties or damages were reported, officials said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The quake struck at 4:08 a.m. Jakarta time Wednesday (2108 GMT Tuesday) with the epicenter at 223 km southwest Saumlaki of Maluku province and the depth at 142 km, an official of the country’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Xinhua by phone.

Eka Gultom, head of provincial disaster management and mitigation agency said that there were no buildings damaged or people injured after the quake. "So far, there is no impact of the quake here. Maybe it is because its location is far away and deep,"she said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website that the quake was measured at magnitude-5.8.

Indonesia lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire," where two continental plates meet that frequently causes seismic and volcanic movements.