A shallow 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck an island in eastern Indonesia on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The onshore quake hit the island of Tapat in the Molucca Sea at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) at 10.24 local time (0324 GMT), the USGS reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage on the island, which has a population of around 50,000.
Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency stated that there was no tsunami threat. The vast archipelago nation frequently experiences earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' an area of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide, stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
A magnitude-6.2 earthquake that shook Sulawesi Island in January 2021 resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people and left thousands homeless. In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi claimed the lives of over 2,200 people. Furthermore, in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 earthquake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami that killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.
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