An earthquake measuring 7.3-magnitude at the Richter Scale rocked the Flores Sea area in Indonesia. Indonesia has now issued a tsunami warning after the powerful earthquake.
The US Geological Survey said that quake struck around 100 kilometres north of the town of Maumere at a depth of 18.5 kilometres (11 miles) in the Flores Sea at 0320 GMT. As per AFP reports, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said “hazardous waves are possible for coasts located within 1,000 km (600 miles) of the quake epicentre”.
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Till now, no causalities and damage have been reported. The officials have asked the residents to stay away from the beaches but, reportedly, no evacuations have been ordered. The chief of Flores Timur district, Anton Hayon, said no damage was reported.
“We asked people in the coastal areas to get away from the beach lines, especially in the northern side… as there was a big tsunami there back in 1972,” Hayon said.
As per the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), earlier in May 2021, an earthquake of 6.6-magnitude struck the northwest coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northwest Sumatra on December 26, 2004, which generated a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and nine other countries. This is one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded.
One such tsunami was triggered in September 2018, which killed around 4000 people were killed. The earthquake, that triggered the tsunami, measured 7.5-magnitude at the Richter Scale.