7.1-magnitude quake strikes off eastern Indonesia, tsunami alert issued
Xinhua | Updated: 2019-07-08 00:14
JAKARTA -- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia's eastern North Maluku province on Sunday evening, triggering a tsunami warning.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake rocked at 22:08 p.m. Jakarta time (1508 GMT) with the epicenter 136 km southwest Ternate of the province and 10 km under the seabed.
"This quake has a potential to trigger tsunami and we have issued a warning for that. However, the potential is small," Bayu Pranata, an official of the agency, told Xinhua.
Aftershocks with magnitudes of 7.1 and 7.0 took place in following minutes, the official said.
The US Geological Survey measured the earthquake at 6.9 magnitude with a depth of 24.9 km.
Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-impacted area called "the Pacific Ring of Fire."
