One Killed, Buildings Damaged As Powerful 7.4 Earthquake Jolts Indonesia; Tsunami Warning Lifted

 

Indonesia : A powerful 7.4-magnitude offshore earthquake struck eastern Indonesia early Thursday, leaving at least one person dead and damaging several buildings in North Sulawesi province, officials said.

While local disaster mitigation agencies and Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency are yet to release official assessments, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake’s epicentre was located at 1.20 degrees north latitude and 126.35 degrees east longitude, and the tremor hit at a shallow depth of 35 kilometres in Molucca Sea between Sulawesi and Maluku island groups early morning.

The tremor, which was initially recorded at a magnitude of 7.8, struck at approximately 6:48 AM local time in Molucca Sea, the USGS added.

 

A local search and rescue official told AFP that one person was killed when a building collapsed in the city of Manado in North Sulawesi province. "The quake was felt strongly and around Manado... one person died and one person had a leg injury. The victim was buried under the rubble of a collapsed building," he said in a telephonic conversation.

The quake initially triggered a warning from a US monitoring agency about the possibility of "hazardous tsunami waves" within a 1000-kilometre radius of the epicentre, but the warning was later lifted.

Earlier, the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert stating that hazardous tsunami waves were possible “within 1,000 km of the epicentre,” particularly along coastal areas of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The USGS also reiterated its warning regarding the potential for "hazardous tsunami waves" in regions situated within the same distance from the epicentre.

 

Within an hour of the tremor, mild tsunami waves were recorded at several monitoring stations, including in North Minahasa where 75 centimetres waves were recorded, in Bitung with a height of 20 centimeters (8 inches) and in West Halmahera with a height of 30 centimeters (a foot), as per Indonesia's BMKG geological agency. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said small waves were possible as well in Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea, but there was no threat to Hawaii, Guam and other more distant islands.

Indonesia remains one of the most seismically active regions in the world, as it lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire -- a vast 40,000-kilometre arc of volcanoes and fault lines formed by the interaction of tectonic plates. This horseshoe-shaped belt surrounding the Pacific Ocean accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes and is known for its frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

 

Just last month, on March 3, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, according to the USGS, shaking residents but not causing significant damage. That quake originated offshore near Sumatra’s northeastern tip, leading many residents to rush outdoors in panic in a region accustomed to frequent tremors.