Powerful quake in Indonesia causes no tsunami
www.chinaview.cn 2008-01-30 18:48:47
JAKARTA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian authorities have lifted the tsunami alert that was issued after a 6.6 magnitude undersea earthquake struck off Maluku province earlier Wednesday.
"The warning was lifted after we learned that there were no tidal waves following the earthquake," said Benny Hendrawanto, an official with the meteorology and geophysics agency.
The earthquake struck at 14:32 Jakarta time (07:32 GMT) and the warning was removed about one hour later.
There was no report of infrastructural damages or casualties, he told Xinhua, adding that the epicenter was located more than 300 km from the nearest inhabited island in Maluku.
Indonesia bore the brunt of the earthquake-triggered tsunami in December 2004 that killed at least 160,000 people in Aceh province alone. In 2006, another tsunami swept through the southern Javanese coast, killing more than 600 people.
