JAKARTA, March 22 — A magnitude-6.4 offshore earthquake hit near Indonesia’s Java island on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, with the tremor felt in the capital Jakarta.
The quake had a depth of approximately eight kilometres, and struck off Java island’s northern coast near Bawean island at about 3.52pm local time (0852 GMT/4.52pm Malaysian time), the USGS said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued by local authorities.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi island in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.
In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.
And in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia. — AFP
