Indonesia issues tsunami warning after M7.3 earthquake
Jakarta, Dec 14 (EFE).- Indonesian authorities issued tsunami warnings on Tuesday after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck off the island of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara province.
The United States Geological Survey located the hypocenter at a depth of 18.5 kilometers (11.5 miles) in the Flores Sea.
The USGS said the earthquake occurred at 11.20 am (03:20 GMT), 112 kilometers north Maumere, the second-largest town on the eastern island of Flores, with a population of about 85,000 people.
While there was no immediate reports of casualties or damage, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), which estimated the magnitude at 7.4, warned of potential tsunami waves in south Sulawesi as well as East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said “hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 1,000 km of the earthquake epicenter.”
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity in which about 7,000 earthquakes are recorded each year, most of them moderate.
In August 2018, a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck northern Lombok island in West Nusa Tenggara, killing around 560 people and injuring more than 1,000.
The next month, some 4,340 people died and more than 10,000 were injured in a shallow magnitude-7.5 earthquake that caused a tsunami and liquefaction in northwest Sulawesi.
Three months later, in December 2018, a tsunami left more than 430 people dead and 14,000 injured in the coastal areas of the islands of Java and Sumatra when part of Anak Krakatao volcano collapsed during an eruption. EFE
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