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South Moluccas: Strong Quake Shakes the Islands |
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Tuesday, 29 August 2006 |
On Tuesday 29 August, two undersea earthquakes struck near Indonesia's Moluccas islands. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A 5.6-magnitude quake hit south of North Sulawesi province followed by aftershocks in the same area, the US Geological Survey reported. A separate quake of magnitude 5.1 later struck north-east of the Tanimbar Islands in Maluku province, it said.
Last month, a 7.7-magnitude quake off the coast of Java triggered a tsunami that killed more than 650 people. Initial reports had suggested the magnitude of Tuesday's first quake was up to 6.4, prompting a tsunami warning, but this was later withdrawn.
More than 130,000 people were killed in Indonesia in a tsunami that hit in December 2004. The country sits on the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire" and experiences frequent earthquakes. On 27 May, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit near the city of Yogyakarta in Java, killing more than 5,800 people.
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