A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck underwater near Nias island in Indonesia late Tuesday, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage, seismologists reported.
The US Geological Survey placed the quake at 10:28 pm local time, about 270 kilometers southwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, at a shallow depth of roughly 1.9 kilometers. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the event posed no broad tsunami danger, though it noted a slight chance of a localized tsunami within about 100 kilometers of the epicenter.
Nias suffered severe devastation in the 26 December 2004 disaster, when a 9.3-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people across the Indian Ocean region, including roughly 168,000 in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
Indonesia lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense seismic activity created by colliding tectonic plates. A major fault line running parallel to Sumatra has repeatedly produced powerful earthquakes in the region.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2006, in its own words.