Powerful quakes rock northeastern Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) — A powerful series of earthquakes shook far northeastern Indonesia Thursday, injuring at least 42 people and damaging about 500 homes and other buildings, officials said.

The damage is concentrated on the islands of Karakelong, Kabaruang, Selebahu and Sangir, according to Dr. Arikalang, head of the health ministry in the Talaud region.

Setting off the chain of temblors was a magnitude 7.2 quake at 1:35 a.m. (12:35 p.m. ET Wednesday), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The major quake was followed by more than 20 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or higher. The number is greater than 30 when smaller aftershocks were counted.

The quakes were all clustered off the northeastern tip of Sulawesi Island, about 1,550 miles (2,495 km) east-northeast of Jakarta, where three major tectonic plates come together, according to Indonesia’s Meteorological and Geophysics Agency.

The plates — massive, sometimes continent-sized, slabs of rock floating on the Earth’s surface — collide with each other, causing earthquakes.

Indonesia is located on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The full extent of damages was not immediately known as an estimated 3,000 people fled coastal areas to surrounding hills for safety in the event of a tidal surge, said Priyadi Kardono, an official with the National Disaster Coordinating Agency.

The Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics Agency said no tsunamis were generated.

The Ministry of Health said it sent a team to the epicenter to assess damage and provide humanitarian support.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/12/indonesia.quake/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Powerful earthquakes strike Asia

Two powerful earthquakes have struck the north-eastern Indonesian Moluccas islands and Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, triggering tsunami alerts.

The first, which had a magnitude of 6.6, occurred at 0902 (0002 GMT) about 120km (75 miles) north of the city of Ternate, the US Geological Survey said.

A few minutes later, a 7.2-magnitude quake hit Hokkaido’s coast, 220km (135 miles) east of the capital, Sapporo.

There have so far been no reports of casualties from either country.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a warning for a 50cm (20-inch) tsunami along the eastern coast of Hokkaido and the north-eastern coast of the country’s main island of Honshu.

A tsunami alert issued immediately after the tremor in the Moluccas islands was lifted by Indonesia’s meteorological agency when the feared wave never came.

“I felt the shaking but it wasn’t really strong,” Ojihan Washab, a hospital worker in Ternate, told the AFP news agency afterwards.

In Japan, emergency procedures were put into effect.

“Many people have evacuated up on higher ground.” Jan Chadzynski told the BBC.

“My daughter is in elementary school here, all her school has been evacuated to the roof of the school.”

A tsunami forms when energy from an earthquake vertically jolts the seabed by several metres, displacing a huge volume of water.

An earthquake off Indonesia triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed approximately 220,000 people across the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia and Japan both lie on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most seismically active areas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7609574.stm