A magnitude-7.3 earthquake has been recorded off the Moluccas in Indonesia, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says, and a tsunami warning has been issued for the nearby area.
The Disaster Management Center Deputy Director W.A.Sarath Lal Kumara told Ada Derana that a Tsunami warning has been not issued for Sri Lanka with the location of where the 7.3 earth quick receded off the sea of Indonesian waters.
ABC news reported that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said hazardous tsunamis were possible within 300 kilometres of the quake’s epicentre.
The centre said there was no danger of a Pacific-wide tsunami. Tsunamis could be expected to reach Indonesia, the Philippines, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands, and as far away as Japan’s Okinawa and Taiwan, it said.
The first waves could reach land within 30 minutes and the last within about six hours. “The initial wave may not be the largest,” the centre warned.
The undersea quake was measured at a depth of 47 kilometres, with the epicentre 134 kilometres north-west of Ternate.
Another quake measuring magnitude 6.2 was recorded soon after off Indonesia’s Sulawesi, according to the USGS.
The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System issued a green alert, indicating it expects the earthquake to have a low humanitarian impact.
In 2004, Indonesia bore the brunt of casualties and damage from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed over 250,000 people in several countries around the ocean’s rim.
