Brief tsunami scare after quake off Indonesia

Epicenter of 5.8 temblor was 90 miles southwest of Tual

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updated 3:24 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2006

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A moderate earthquake rocked parts of southeastern Indonesia on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, and experts said there was no risk of a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Denver said it was a 5.8 magnitude quake.

At that strength, “it certainly is not going to generate a widespread tsunami,” Don Blakeman of USGS told The Associated Press.

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Charles McCreery, director of the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said the quake was “well below our threshold for issuing any kind of advisory ... it’s nothing to be alarmed about.”

Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said it was a 6.4 magnitude quake.

The earthquake was centered 20 miles beneath the Arafura Sea, about 90 miles southwest of Tual, the agency said.