A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast early Monday, sending residents running out of their homes, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake hit at a depth of 60 kilometres (40 miles) under the Molucca Sea, some 175 kilometres north northwest of the city of Ternate, according to the USGS.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and Indonesia's geophysics agency did not issue a tsunami alert.

"We felt the quake and some people got out of their house but there was no real panic. There is no damage in my area," said a man from Ternate called Budi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Bani Nasution, a man who was in the city of Manado when the quake struck, told AFP: "I ran out of my house and so did other people here, but we've all returned to our houses now."

A series of aftershocks also rocked the area.

Indonesia is still reeling from a deadly tsunami at the end of December triggered by an erupting volcano in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands that killed more than 400 people.

The vast Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

The tsunami was Indonesia's third major natural disaster in six months, following a series of powerful earthquakes on the island of Lombok in July and August and a quake-tsunami in September that killed around 2,200 people in Palu on Sulawesi island, with thousands more missing and presumed dead.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Oroville Dam earthquakes in February 2017 related to spillway discharge
San Francisco FL (SPX) Dec 19, 2018
A closer look at small earthquakes that took place at the Oroville Dam in California's Sierra Nevada foothills in February 2017 - near the time when the dam's spillway failed - suggest that the seismic activity was related to reservoir discharge that opened and closed fractures in the rock below the spillway. It seems likely that fluid leaking through cracks in the main spillway altered the pressure on the underlying rock fractures, causing them to slowly open and then slam shut, over and over, ac ... read more