Indonesia Hit by Magnitude-7.5 Earthquake
November 17, 2008 – 8:22 am
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — A magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi at 1:02 a.m. local time today, the U.S. Geological Survey said. One person was injured and buildings collapsed, Agence France-Presse reported.
The quake hit 135 kilometers (85 miles) northwest of the city of Gorontalo at a depth of 26 kilometers, the U.S. agency said. Two aftershocks hit the area within 80 minutes, one measuring 5.6 and one 5.5.
The quake had the potential to generate a tsunami along coasts within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in an e-mailed alert. No tsunami was reported after five hours. Indonesian authorities lifted a tsunami warning they issued after the quake, AFP reported.
Several buildings were destroyed in Gorontalo, which is about 1,950 kilometers east-northeast of Jakarta, AFP reported. In Tolitoli, to the west of Gorontalo, residents told AFP buildings had collapsed. An Indonesian official told the news agency he expected there to be casualties.
A magnitude-9.1 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra to the northwest of Jakarta in 2004 produced a tsunami that left more than 220,000 people dead in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.
Indonesia lies in a zone where the Indo-Australian, Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific tectonic plates meet and occasionally shift, causing earthquakes that sometimes trigger tsunamis.
SOURCE: Bloomberg Asia.
