Jakarta, Feb 2 : A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku early Wednesday, but no report of casualty or damages was issued, a weather agency and officials said. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency earlier released information on the quake with a magnitude of 6.2 before revising it. The agency did not issue any tsunami warning as the jolts triggered no giant waves of tsunami.
The quake struck at 4:25 a.m. local time Wednesday (1925 GMT Tuesday), with the epicenter at 86 km northeast of Maluku Barat Daya district and the depth at 131 km under the seabed, the agency said. The intensity of the quake was felt at II to III MMI (on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale) in Saumlaki, a city of Tanimbar Island district and Maluku Barat Daya district, it said. The quake was caused by subduction at Banda Sea, originating from an oblique thrust fault, the agency’s head of the Quake and Tsunami Department Bambang Setiyo Prayitno said in a statement. Senior officials of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency in the two districts (the hardest hit areas) said that the tremors were not felt by the residents in the territories. “The jolts were not felt here, so there was no panic or damage,” Doni B Layan, head of the Operation Unit of Tanimbar Island district’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency told Xinhua via phone. Similarly, in Maluku Barat Daya district, the jolts did not cause any damage or casualty, Yoshua Philippus, head of the Operation Unit at the district’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency told Xinhua in a text message.
