Early Tuesday, a powerful deep-sea earthquake that was felt widely in northern Australia caused damage to village buildings on a chain of sparsely populated islands in eastern Indonesia. The quake was centered 65 miles (105 kilometers) from Australia's northern tip, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, 124 houses and two school buildings were damaged in Indonesia's Tanimbar islands and Southwest Maluku districts. There was only one reported injury. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake's epicenter was in the Banda Sea, close to the 127,000-person Tanimbar islands.
The quake was felt in a number of places, including the provinces of Papua and East Nusa Tenggara as well as northern Australia. A tsunami warning was issued by the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia, but it was lifted three hours later. Geoscience Australia received reports of the quake from over 1,000 people in northern Australia, including Darwin.
Indonesia is located on the Ring of Fire, which is an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. The Ring of Fire is caused by the movement of tectonic plates, which are large pieces of the Earth's crust that make up the surface of the planet. The Ring of Fire is formed by the boundaries of these tectonic plates, where they come into contact with one another. In the case of Indonesia, it sits on the boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Australian plate, and the movement of these plates causes stress in the Earth's crust that can lead to earthquakes.
Additionally, the island of Sumatra sits on a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate is sliding under another. This causes even more stress in the Earth's crust and can lead to even stronger earthquakes. The country also have many Volcanoes.
Due to its location and geology, Indonesia is at a high risk for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the world.
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