Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake Strikes Indonesia’s Papua

AFP/APP

Jakarta: A powerful magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Indonesia’s eastern province of Papua on Thursday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, and no tsunami warning was issued.

According to the USGS, the quake occurred at around 2:48 pm local time (0548 GMT), with its epicentre located approximately 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the provincial capital Jayapura, at a depth of 35 kilometres.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii confirmed that the tremor did not pose a tsunami threat.

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Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) measured the quake slightly lower, at magnitude 6.4 and a shallower depth of 16 kilometres.

BMKG’s earthquake and tsunami director Daryono, who goes by one name, said in a statement that no aftershocks had been recorded so far.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”—an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity where multiple tectonic plates meet. The region frequently experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost province, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea, which it shares with Papua New Guinea.

Earlier, an offshore earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck Davao Oriental province in the southern Philippines on Friday morning, prompting the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to issue a tsunami warning for coastal areas in Mindanao.

In its report, the institute said the quake occurred at 9:43 a.m. local time (0143 GMT) at a depth of 20 kilometers, approximately 44 kilometers northeast of the municipality of Manay. The institute initially reported the earthquake’s magnitude as 7.6.

Authorities strongly advised residents in coastal communities to move immediately to higher ground and stay away from the shore, warning that hazardous tsunami waves of more than one meter could impact areas near the epicenter within minutes to hours.