Powerful Earthquake Jolts North Sulawesi`s Talaud Islands

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A 6.7-magnitude earthquake jolted Talaud Islands District in the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi on Sunday at around 9:02 a.m. local time, but there were no reports of serious damages or casualties.

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) revealed that the earthquake epicenter was roughly 192 kilometers northwest of Melonguane in Talaud Islands District at at a depth of 121 km.

"This earthquake has no potential for a tsunami," the agency's Winangun-based geophysics station's operational staff, Zulkifli, told Antara in Manado on Sunday.

Today's powerful earthquake that rocked Talaud Islands District happened only four days after a 6.5-magnitude quake rattled the areas of Ambon, Maluku Tengah District, and Seram Bagian Barat District in Maluku Province.

According to Agus Wibowo, acting chief of the Data and Information Center and Public Relations of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBN), the powerful earthquake that jolted certain parts of Maluku Province on September 26 had killed 20 people, and wounded 152 others.

The earthquake also forced 25,000 survivors to take refuge, and damaged 534 houses, 12 houses of worship, eight government buildings, six schools, one health center, one market, and one bridge.

Located on the Circum-Pacific Belt, also known as the Ring of Fire, where several tectonic plates meet and cause frequent volcanic and seismic activities. Indonesia is susceptible to natural disasters, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

During 2018, the BMKG recorded that Indonesia had borne the impact of 11,577 earthquakes, including several causing grave casualties, with the number significantly rising than that in 2017.

The BMKG data showed that 11,577 earthquakes, with varying magnitudes and depths, hit during 2018, while just 7,172 earthquakes were recorded in 2017.

This indicates that Indonesia bore witness to a significant increase in the number of tectonic earthquakes last year.

Several earthquake-related events that had struck Indonesia last year were first of a kind to have occurred, such as the liquefaction in Palu, a tsunami that struck prior to the issuance of a tsunami warning in Palu, and the Sunda Strait Tsunami.

ANTARA