JAKARTA. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake was recorded off the coast of Indonesia. The Geological Institute of the United States (Usgs) reports it on its website. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at a depth of 594 km, about 94 km from Tuban, on the northern coast of Java. There are currently no reports of damage or injuries.
The earthquake was also felt on the island of Bali, so far there have been no immediate reports of major damage or casualties. Videos circulating on social media show local residents and tourists in the nearby provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and Bali in a panic as houses and buildings wobble for several seconds. In some places, evacuations were ordered and people poured into the streets.
The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire”. In 2004, an extremely powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, mostly in the Indonesian province of Aceh.