Jakarta: A powerful earthquake measuring 7.1magnitude on the Richter Scale struck Indonesia’s Banda Sea on Wednesday. No tsunami warning was issued after the earthquake. According to the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency, the temblor was felt moderately in the town of Saumlaki in the archipelago’s Tanimbar Islands. There is no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis frequently strike Indonesia, a country of more than 270 million people because of its location on the ‘Ring of Fire’. The Ring of Fire, or the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. It is a horseshoe-shaped belt about 40,000km long and about 500 km wide that contains two-thirds of the world’s total volcanoes and 90% of Earth’s earthquakes.
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In November last year, a 5.6-magnitude quake hit the populous West Java province on the country’s main island of Java, killing 602 people. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.
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