Indonesia earthquake: An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit eastern parts of Indonesia on Wednesday. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake was 147 kilometers (91 mi) under the ocean near the southeast of Gorontalo.
It further said that tremors shook parts of Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, North Maluku and Central Sulawesi provinces, but no serious damage or injuries were reported. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency has also not issued any tsunami warning.
Indonesia is vulnerable to earthquakes
It should be mentioned here that Indonesia is a vast archipelago and home to more than 270 million people. The island nation is frequently affected by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Basin.
Read also: Magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocks western Indonesia, no tsunami warning issued
Deadliest earthquake in Indonesia
Earlier in November 2022, at least 331 people were killed by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in West Java. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, which killed some 4,340 people.
In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh province of Indonesia.
(with inputs from AP)