An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted Kaimana waters, West Papua Province, on Tuesday at 6.48 am Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB), ANTARA reported. The temblor`s epicenter was located 118 km southeast of Kaimana (West Papua), 171 km northeast of Tual (Maluku), and 22 km southwest of Nabire (Papua Province), at a depth of 10 km below sea level. The earthquake did not have potential to cause a tsunami, according to the meteorological, climatology, and geophysics agency in Bandarlampung. Meanwhile, the Central Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in Jakarta reported here on Monday that a mild earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter Scale jolted Bengkulu, Sumatra Island, on Tuesday at 4.25 am local time. The temblor`s epicenter was located at 4.07 degrees southern latitude and 102.54 degrees eastern longitude, around 43 km southeast of Bengkulu, at a depth of 33 km under seabed. Indonesia, the world`s largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval. Last Saturday (June 20), two earthquakes shook respectively Bitung, North Sulawesi Province, and southwest of Bintuhan, Bengkulu. And on Friday (June 19), 5.0-magnitude earthquake hit southeast of Ambon, Maluku. Last Thursday (June 18), an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted Cilacap on Thursday at 2.42 am local time. In December 2004, a 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Aceh (northern Sumatra) and Nias Island (North Sumatra Province) and triggered a deadly tsunami which devastated the two affected areas and killed around 200,000 people.
