Baku, April 9, AZERTAC
A shallow earthquake measuring 4.9 struck eastern Indonesia on April 8 night, damaging more than 100 houses and injuring many people, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the quake occurred just before midnight at a depth of about 10.4 km, with its epicentre located approximately 104 km east of Maumere city in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Two villages on the small island of Adonara felt the biggest impact, with more than 100 houses damaged and at least 20 people injured, according to local official Ismail Daton Ban.
Indonesia and neighbouring countries experience frequent earthquakes due to their location in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck the westernmost Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia. Shallow quakes tend to be more damaging, with seismic waves travelling a shorter distance through the ground and reaching the surface with more energy.