Sunday, September 14, 2008

Powerful quake hits Timor-Leste, no casualties

An earthquake with the magnitude of 6.5 rocked Timor-Leste on Sunday, but with no report of damage or casualties, the Indonesian meteorology agency said here.

The intensity of the quake was so low that its shake was not felt on land, an official of the agency named only Nurpujianto told Xinhua.

The quake struck at 07:00 Jakarta time with the epicenter at 159 kilometers southeast of Dili, the capital of the province and at 10 kilometers in depth, an official of the agency said.

Earlier the Hong Kong Observatory reported an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale that hit Timor-Leste with the epicenter initially determined to be 8.8 degrees south latitude and 126.9 degrees east longitude, about 580 south-southwest of Ambon, Indonesia.

Timor-Leste sits at a vulnerable zone so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire" where two continental plates, stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, meet that cause frequent volcanic movements.

Source: Xinhua

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