Hazardous tsunami waves possible within 1,000km of epicentre along coasts of Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia
\n Sumatra
\nAn earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck the Northern Molucca Sea off Indonesia\u2019s historic spice island of Ternate on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, triggering a tsunami warning for neighbouring Southeast Asian nations.
\nThere were no immediate reports of injuries, though the agency reported aftershocks of magnitude as high as 5, and Indonesia issued tsunami warnings for areas in its provinces of North Maluku and North Sulawesi.
\nRegional governments in some cities, such as Ternate and Tidore, the former spice islands, were urged to prepare citizens for evacuation, while news channel Metro TV broadcast images of damaged buildings.
\nThe quake, its magnitude revised down from an initial 7.8, struck at a depth of 35km (22 miles), greater than the early figure of 10km (6 miles), the USGS added.
\nIts epicentre was about 120km (75 miles) from Ternate, in North Maluku, which has a population of more than 200,000, the agency said.
\nHazardous tsunamis were possible along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia within 1,000km (620 miles) of the epicentre, US tsunami warning authorities said.
\nWaves of height ranging from 0.3m to 1m (0.98ft to 3.28ft) above the tide level could hit some coastal areas of Indonesia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
\nIt also warned of the risk of waves less than 0.3m (1ft) over tide levels for the coasts of Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Taiwan.
\nJapan may see waves of up to 0.2m (8 inches), but no damage is expected, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, as it warned a tsunami could occur in the Pacific.
\nIndonesia straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity where tectonic plates meet, and earthquakes are frequent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hazardous tsunami waves possible within 1,000km of epicentre along coasts of Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia Sumatra An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck the Northern Molucca Sea off Indonesia\u2019s historic spice island of Ternate on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, triggering a tsunami warning for neighbouring Southeast Asian nations. There were no immediate reports of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-539705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n