A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck in Indonesia’s Northern Molucca Sea, killing one person, damaging buildings and triggering tsunami waves, authorities and witnesses said, though monitoring agencies said the likelihood of further casualties was low.
Indonesia’s meteorology agency BMKG said there were tsunami waves reported in five locations, the highest at 0.75m in North Minahasa in North Sulawesi, and about 50 aftershocks were monitored, the largest at a magnitude of 5.8.
BMKG chief Teuku Faisal Fathani initially said modelling indicated there was tsunami potential for waves of 0.5m to 3m high, but the agency lifted its tsunami warning later yesterday morning.
US tsunami warning authorities also initially said hazardous tsunamis were possible along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia but later lifted the threat warning.
One person was killed by falling rubble in Manado city when part of a building used by the local sports authority collapsed, deputy chief of North Sulawesi police Awi Setiyono told reporters.
Indonesia is a tectonically complex part of the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a seismically active belt of volcanoes stretching from South America to the Russian Far East.
The epicentre of yesterday’s quake was roughly 580km south of the Philippine coast and 1,000km from Malaysia’s Sabah, and struck at a depth of 35km.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said nine other quakes with a magnitude of 7 or more have occurred within 250km of yesterday’s event over the last 50 years but had not caused extensive damage.
Though the epicentre is within 150km of densely populated islands like Ternate and Sulawesi, USGS said there was a “low likelihood” of further casualties, and economic damage was also expected to be limited.
Indonesia’s national disaster agency, however, urged caution.
“Although relatively small, this situation still requires vigilance due to the potential for aftershocks,” it said in a statement.
It said initial reports were of minor to moderate damage to several houses and a church, and a fuller assessment was underway.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned of the risk of waves less than 0.3m above tide levels for the coasts of Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Japan, it said, may see waves of up to 0.2m, but no damage is expected. — Reuters
