7.7 magnitude earthquake jolts Indonesia’s Tanimbar; triggers tsunami warning

Jakarta: A magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Tuesday (January 10) struck the Tanimbar region of Indonesia, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) announced in a post on Twitter. The earthquake struck 342 kilometers southwest of the Tual region in Indonesia at 02:47:35 (local time), according to EMSC. The EMSC said that the shaking was felt over 2000 kilometers by approximately 14 million people in Australia, Timor Leste, and Indonesia.

The quake also triggered a tsunami warning.

According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the quake was at a depth of 97 kilometres below the earth’s surface. Also, it warned people to stay from damaged areas in order to alter any untoward incident.

According to reports, the powerful quake damaged village buildings in eastern Indonesia and the shaking was also widely felt in northern Australia.

“Based on four tide gauge observations around the center of the earthquake, it did not show any significant anomaly or change in sea level,” said Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency.

The National Disaster Mitigation agency received visual reports of damage to houses and community buildings in Watuwey village in Southwest Maluku.