A powerful magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck the northern Molucca Sea off the coast of Ternate, Indonesia, early Thursday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The tremor toppled and damaged buildings in Bitung and Manado in North Sulawesi, and in Ternate city in North Maluku. A 70-year-old woman died when a building collapsed in Manado, and another resident was injured, Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency said. At least three people were hospitalized in Ternate. Search and rescue official George Leo Mercy Randang told AFP the woman had been “buried under the rubble.”
The quake triggered a tsunami warning for Indonesia and neighboring countries, the Philippines and Malaysia, with the US monitoring center warning of possible “hazardous tsunami waves” within 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of the epicenter. Waves of up to 75 centimeters (30 inches) above normal were registered at several monitoring stations around the Molucca Sea coast. The tsunami warning has since been lifted.
The quake struck about 127 kilometers west of Ternate at a shallow depth of roughly 35 kilometers. Earthquakes near the Earth’s surface are usually more intense and damaging than deeper tremors. The USGS reported dozens of strong aftershocks, including one as high as magnitude 6.2.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a tectonic zone with intense seismic and volcanic activity.
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru and Karl Sexton