Moderate Earthquake Hits Talaud Islands Of Indonesia

Jakarta, 07 Jumadil Akhir 1437/ 17 March 2016 (MINA) – A moderate earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale struck Talaud Islands at 9.09 pm Wednesday night, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The BMKG said the epicenter of the earthquake was at 4.48 degrees northern latitude and 124.97 east longitude with a depth of 13 kilometers below sea level or about 165 km northwest Talaud Island of Indonesia and 743 km northeast of Semporna, Sabah.

The quake did not pose any tsunami threat, it said in a statement.

The huge archipelago sits between the most active seismic region in the world, the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur, and the Alpide Belt.

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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has described the region as among the most seismically active zones in the world. The Ring of Fire, or the circum-Pacific belt, is the world’s greatest earthquake belt, according to Live Science, because of fault lines running from Chile to Japan and Southeast Asia.

These fault lines are breaks in the plates of the Earth’s crust and are where earthquakes are likely to occur. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

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