A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck deep under the ocean off the coast of Indonesia and East Timor early Tuesday morning, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The epicenter of the quake was 427 km south of the Indonesian island of Ambon at a depth of 95 km, according to the US Geological Survey.
The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) has reported several tremors of magnitude 5.5.
“I was lying in bed, then I felt a slight shiver. I woke up and found that many of my friends felt it too,” Ambon Hamdi, an Indonesian resident, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Indonesian Geophysical Agency initially warned of a potential tsunami but then lifted the warning.
Indonesia often experiences seismic activity due to its position in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide.
On November 21, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck the densely populated province of West Java on the main island of Java, killing 602 people.
A strong earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 people, even in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
This powerful earthquake of 9.1 magnitude caused 100-foot waves that hit the shores of Banda Aceh in Sumatra.
