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Major quake hits Indonesia, Philippines
Jakarta (AFP) Feb 12, 2009 A major 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island near the Philippines early Thursday, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries. Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency issued a tsunami warning immediately after the quake struck at 1:34 am (1734 GMT Wednesday), but cancelled it about one hour later. The epicentre of the quake was located about 320 kilometres (200 miles) northeast of the Indonesian town of Manado and 280 kilometres southeast of General Santos in the Philippines, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at a depth of 33 kilometres. The USGS initially put the magnitude at 7.5, but later revised it down to 7.0 and then to 7.2. Indonesia said the quake had measured 7.4 on the Richter scale. Several aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 6.3 struck in the hours after the original quake, the USGS reported. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre sent a bulletin saying there was "no destructive widespread tsunami threat" based on available data. The Indonesian archipelago straddles several continental plates in an area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire where seismic and volcanic activity is recorded on an almost daily basis. Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami in December 2004 that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries across Asia, including over 168,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and Nias island. The Philippines, made up of more than 7,000 islands, also experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Dam may have triggered huge China quake: scientists
Beijing (AFP) Feb 5, 2009A man-made dam may have triggered China's devastating earthquake last year, some government officials and scientists are claiming, pitting them against others who insist it was a natural disaster. |
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