A 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest of Ondong, Sitaro Islands, North Sulawesi Province, on Sunday morning, ANTARA News Agency quoted the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) as saying. The epicenter of the earthquake, which struck at 07.30 WIB (West Indonesia Standard Time), was located at sea, about 69 kilometers southwest of Ondong at a depth of 255 kilometers, the agency stated in a press statement. No immediate report was received of casualties or injuries. The tremor was felt by people in North Morotai at Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale III and Ternate at MMI scale II. The tremors of the quake were also felt in the nearby province of North Maluku, it said. The agency did not issue a tsunami warning, saying that the earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami. An earthquake of MMI II was felt by some people and resulted in the hung light articles shaking, while an eartthquake of MMI III could be felt indoors akin to the movement of a truck. Indonesia straddle the Pacific Ring of Fire, where different tectonic plates of the Earth's crust meet and create frequent seismic activity, causing them to experience frequent earthquakes. The Ring of Fire is along the northeastern islands adjacent of New Guinea and the Alpide belt along the south and west from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, and Timor. The motion of the fault generates numerous small earthquakes on a daily basis. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia. — Agencies
