(Jakarta) An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 occurred on Tuesday off the coast of Indonesia and East Timor, in the depths of the ocean, according to the American seismological institute (USGS).
The epicenter of the earthquake is located 427 kilometers south of the Indonesian island of Ambon, 95 kilometers deep, the institute said.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) initially warned of a possible tsunami, before lifting the warning.
It also reported aftershocks with a magnitude of 5.5.
“I was in bed when I felt a slight tremor. I got up and realized that many of my friends had felt it too,” Hamdi, an Indonesian from Ambon, told AFP.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic activity due to its position on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plates collide.
On November 21, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake killed 602 people when it hit the populated province of West Java on the main island of Java.
As for December 26, 2004, a major earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 people as far away as Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
This powerful earthquake of magnitude 9.1 had caused gigantic waves, reaching up to 30 meters in height, which had hit the shore of Banda Aceh, in the north of the island of Sumatra.