Large earthquakes reported in Indonesia and Japan

September 11, 2008

Two powerful earthquakes occurred on Thursday morning (around midnight UTC), one in Indonesia and one in Japan. There are no initial reports of casualties or damages. Tsunami alerts were issued, later expired.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Indonesia at 09:00 local time (midnight UTC). The focus was located 98.3 km in depth The epicenter was located 120 km north of Ternate, Moluccas, and 2460 km east-northeast of Jakarta. USGS also reported Japan was hit by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake at 09:21 local time (00:21 UTC). Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) estimated the focus at depth of 31 km, off the southeast coast of Hokkaido. Five aftershocks were felt by 17:00 with small shakes observed. The largest one was estimated as magnitude 5.4 by the USGS.

The affected countries issued tsunami warnings, which were expired later. As to Indonesia no tsunami occurred within the expected time. Tsunamis of up to 0.2 m were observed in Japan by 17:00, according to JMA.