Jakarta, Dec 30 –A 7.4-magnitude earthquake jolted off the southern coast of east Indonesia’s Maluku province early Thursday morning, the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency said.
The extremely strong quake hit Kepulauan Barat Daya, some 113km northeast of Lospalos, Municipio de Lautem, Timor-Leste.
It struck at 3.25 am local time at an immediate and considerable depth of 200km, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
That has since been downgraded slightly to a depth of 167km by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
A tsunami warning has not been issued for the surrounding islands.
The impact of the earthquake was felt as far as 600km away in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Around 1,700 of its residents have reported feeling tremors early on Thursday, according to Geoscience.
VolcanoDiscovery, a website that alerts the public about volcanoes and earthquakes happening anywhere in the world and provides an extensive database of these phenomena said that preliminary seismic data indicates the earthquake was likely felt by “many” people in the area of the epicenter.
But it should not have caused “significant damage”, other than objects falling from shelves and broken windows.
Volcano Discovery added in Lospalos, which has a population of 17,200, Baucau (population 16,000) 160km away, and Venilale (population 16,000) 176km away, the quake should have been felt as “light shaking”.
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