Magnitude 7.4 quake triggers tsunami warning
An earthquake has struck off Indonesia’s Ternate island, with a tsunami warning in place.
Tsunami warnings have been issued after a magnitude 7.4 struck in the Northern Molucca Sea off Indonesia’s Ternate island, damaging buildings.
The United States Geological Survey on Thursday reported aftershocks of magnitude as high as 5, while Indonesia’s meteorology agency BMKG reported tsunami waves of 30 centimetrs in West Halmahera and 20 centimetres in Bitung.
Indonesian broadcaster Metro TV reported one person had died from falling rubble in the Manado area and video showed damaged buildings.
A Manado resident told Reuters that people ran out of their houses in panic. There was no visible damage in her neighbourhood, but items fell off shelves and power had been cut.
Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Regional governments in some cities, such as on Ternate and Tidore, the historic Spice Islands, were urged to prepare citizens for evacuation.
Hazardous tsunamis were possible along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia within 1000 kilometres of the epicentre, US tsunami warning authorities said.
The epicentre of the quake was about 580 kilometres south of the Philippine coast and 1000 kilometres from Malaysia’s Sabah.
The Philippines’ seismology agency Phivolcs said there was “no destructive tsunami threat” to the country based on latest data.
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Malaysia’s meteorological department said in a Facebook post there was no tsunami threat to Malaysia at the moment and that it was monitoring developments
Waves of up to a metre above the tide level could hit some coastal areas of Indonesia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
It also warned of the risk of waves less than 30 centimetres over tide levels for the coasts of Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Japan may get waves of up to 20 centimetres, but no damage was expected, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, as it warned of a possible tsunami in the Pacific.
-with AAP
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