JAKARTA, INDONESIA — The U.S. geological agency says a strong earthquake has struck in the waters off western Indonesia.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey put today’s preliminary magnitude of the quake at 6.8. It says the quake was centered 100 miles southwest of Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra island, and that it was 16 miles beneath the ocean floor. Indonesia’s geological agency says the temblor did not trigger a tsunami.
Indonesia 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.
A massive earthquake off Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline.
