Indonesia's West Java hit by strong earthquake

Wed Aug 8, 2:59 PM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck a coastal area in Indonesia's West Java on Thursday, sparking panic in many parts of the densely inhabited island, although there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake was too deep to prompt a tsunami warning, said Robert Cessaro at the United States National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

An official at Indonesia's Meteorological agency said by telephone that it struck an area on the northern coast of West Java.

"There has been no damage or casualties reported so far," the official said by telephone, adding that the quake could be felt as far away as Padang in Sumatra and the resort island of Bali.

The quake with a magnitude of 7.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, struck just after midnight and could be felt by residents in the capital Jakarta, as well as in the nearby city of Bandung and in the town Yogyakarta in central Java.

Powerful Earthquake Hits Indonesia

Powerful Earthquake Shakes Buildings Violently

In Indonesian Capital

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 9, 2007

(AP) A powerful earthquake under the Java Sea rattled Indonesia's capital early Thursday, violently shaking tall buildings and sending panicked residents into the streets. There were no reports of damage and the temblor didn't trigger a tsunami, probably because of its depth 180 miles beneath the Java Sea, geophysicists said.

The quake, which struck at 12:04 a.m. (1:04 p.m. EDT Wednesday) had a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 and was centered about 65 miles east of Jakarta, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Residents said tall buildings and single story homes shook violently in the city of 9 million people, and water sloshed from swimming pools. Many people were awakened by the quake and some people screamed "Allah akbar!" or "God is great!" as they ran outside.

El-Shinta radio reported that the quake could be felt from Sumatra island in the west to Bali to the east. The quake also was felt in parts of Malaysia, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. None of the instruments closest to the earthquake indicated that a tsunami was triggered, said Robert Cessaro, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. He added that there were no instruments "very close" to the quake's epicenter.

"Because this earthquake was so far below the ocean bottom, it didn't trigger a tsunami or cause a lot of damage," said John Bellini, another USGS geophysicist. The Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered the tsunami off the coast of Sumatra and killed more than 131,000 in Indonesia's Ache province was only 18 miles deep, according to the USGS. "The earthquake center in 2004 was close enough that it actually ruptured the surface of the sea floor, which caused a tsunami," Bellini said. "This one was felt by people on the ground, and it shook buildings, but it was too deep to cause the ocean bottom to move."

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 volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.


Associated Press writers Chris Hawke in Bangkok, Thailand, and Sarah DiLorenzo and Lily Hindy contributed to this story from New York.


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