JAKARTA, April 2 — An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck in the Northern Molucca Sea off Indonesia's Ternate island today, damaging some buildings and triggering tsunami waves, according to authorities and witnesses.
The United States (US) Geological Survey reported aftershocks of magnitude as high as five, and Indonesia's meteorology agency BMKG reported tsunami waves of 0.3m in West Halmahera and 0.2m in Bitung.
Broadcaster Metro TV reported one person had died from falling rubble in the Manado area, and video showed damaged buildings.
A Manado resident told Reuters that people ran out of their houses in panic. There was no visible damage in her neighbourhood, but items fell off shelves, and power had been cut.
Indonesia straddles the "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Regional governments in some cities, such as Ternate and Tidore in the historic Spice Islands, were urged to prepare citizens for evacuation.
US tsunami warning authorities said that hazardous tsunamis were possible along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia within 1,000km of the epicentre.
The epicentre of the quake was roughly 580km south of the Philippine coast and 1,000km from Malaysia's Sabah.
The Philippines’ seismology agency Phivolcs said there was “no destructive tsunami threat” to the country based on the latest data.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Meteorological Department said on Facebook that there was no tsunami threat to the country at the moment, and that it was monitoring developments.
Similarly, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said that waves of heights ranging from 0.3m to 1m above the tide level could hit some coastal areas of Indonesia.
It also warned of the risk of waves less than 0.3m over tide levels for the coasts of Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
In Japan, the Meteorological Agency stated that the country may see waves of up to 0.2m, but no damage is expected, though it also warned that a tsunami could occur in the Pacific.
