A 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Timor Island on Thursday, causing light damage to several buildings and homes. There were no reports of serious injuries or casualties in the quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported was centered about 13 miles north-northeast of Kupang. Image courtesy of USGS
Nov. 1 (UPI) — A 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Timor Island on Thursday, causing panic, confusion and light damage to several buildings and homes. There were no reports of serious injuries or casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake struck about 22.4 miles below ground and was centered about 13 miles north-northeast of Kupang, the capital city of East Nusa Tenggara province.
Daryono, the director of the head of the Earthquake and Tsunami Center at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency, who goes by one name, said the land-based quake caused panic as it was strongly felt in several cities and villages.
“The quake has caused light damages in several buildings and houses,” Daryono wrote in a social media post. He said there was no tsunami danger.
The agency initially reported that the quake had a magnitude of 6.6, but later downgraded it to 6.3. Variations in early measurements of quakes are common. The USGS reported that the quake had a magnitude of 6.1.
Video on social media showed residents in Kupang panicking just after dawn as houses and buildings swayed. Some witnesses said ceilings at the governor’s and mayor’s offices were damaged.
Samuel Malohana, a hotel employee at Aston Hotel in Kupang, said guests were panicking when the quake hit. About 100 guests left their room and gathered in front of the hotel.
Indonesia straddles an area of high seismic activity that rests atop multiple tectonic plates known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
About 602 people died last year when a 5.6 magnitude temblor rocked Cianjur city in West Java. That was Indonesia’s deadliest quake since 2018 when an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 4,300 people.
A powerful quake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 caused a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.