Undersea quake hits northeast Indonesia

JAKARTA (AFP) - A 5.7-magnitude quake struck off northeast Indonesia Saturday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The undersea quake struck at 01:06 pm (0406 GMT) 237 kilometres (147 miles) northwest of Ternate town in North Maluku province.

"There are no reports that the quake was felt anywhere," a staff member at the agency told AFP.

There was no danger of a tsunami being triggered by the quake, whose epicentre was 33 kilometres under the seafloor, the agency said.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at 5.4.

A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook Indonesia's main island of Java early Thursday and was felt as far as North Sumatra to the west and in Bali about 880 kilometres to the east.

No serious damage was caused by that deep quake.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami of December 2004 which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province alone.
The archipelago nation sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

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