6.7- Magnitude Earthquake Strikes off Indonesia | NEWS on 4th April 2011

6.7- Magnitude Earthquake Strikes off Indonesia | NEWS on 4th April 2011

Last month (11th March 2011) a huge level of earthquake hit in Japan and following a heavy tsunami hit Japan, the large damages happened and atomic power stations were heavily affected that rehabilitations are still continuing.  This incidents remembrance still in our mind, in mean time one more earthquake has raised in Indonesia:

A magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert notifying authorities of "a very small possibility of a local tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the earthquake epicenter."

After initially estimating it at 10km underground, and 277km south of the Javanese coast.

The quake's epicenter was located 149 miles (240 kilometers) east-northeast of Christmas Island at a depth of 14.9 miles, US Geological Survey said. .

Indonesian seismologists put the magnitude at 7.1 and issued a tsunami warning, saying the tremor had the potential to cause a killer wave and asking recipients of its public alert SMS to warn others of the danger.

The warning was later cancelled.

When the quake struck hundreds of residents in the seaport town of Cilacap fled inland and to higher ground by motorbike, car and on foot, an AFP reporter said.

"They were all panicking and shouting 'quake, quake'," the reporter said.

Suharjono, the technical head of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said shaking from the tremor had been felt in Pangandaran and Cilacap districts in Java.

"This quake roused people from their sleep," he said. "We have not received any reports of damage or casualties so far."

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had said that there was no risk of a widespread destructive wave, but there was a "very small possibility of a local tsunami".

The earthquake epicentre was 241 km from the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island, and seismologists said the tremor was felt there, but no tsunami warning alert was issued for Australia.

"We had reports from there that they felt it," Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepson told AFP, adding that it was described as a "moderate type quake".

Geoscience Australia put the quake at 6.7 magnitude.