Indonesia cancels tsunami alert after quake

updated 4:28 a.m. ET Feb. 20, 2007

MANADO, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake in northeastern Indonesia on Tuesday caused panicked residents to flee shaking buildings on islands in the Maluku Sea and briefly triggered a tsunami warning, officials said.

The 6.5-magnitude quake struck 130 miles from Ternate, the capital of Maluku island, and 233 miles from Manado, the northernmost city on Sulawesi island, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

"We called local authorities in Ternate and coastal areas to warn them of a potential tsunami," said Fauzi, a seismologist who goes by only one name, adding that it turned out to be a false alarm.

One hour after the quake struck, there were no signs of seismically triggered waves.

It was not immediately clear if the quake, which was centered at a depth of around 20 miles, caused any injuries and damage appeared to be largely limited to cracks in buildings.

Frightened residents fled their homes and at least one hotel in Ternate was evacuated.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, including 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone. A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

Tuesday's quake came less than a month after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake hit in roughly the same spot, killing at least three people.

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