Magnitude 6.7 earthquake strikes near Indonesia
A large earthquake in the Banda Sea has sent shockwaves as far as Darwin and left locals rattled. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake happened near the Tanimbar Islands region of Indonesia at 3.19pm on Monday.
The German Research Centre for Geosciences reported it at a depth of 10 km. Residents spread across parts of Darwin, Palmerston, Noonamah and Berry Springs confirmed tremors shaking the ground in their area.
It occurred less than 600 km from the Australian shoreline and was reported by 966 people. Several Indonesian Islands and Timor Leste were also caught in its shockwaves.
There was no immediate reports of damage, Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency has said. No tsunami is expected to occur as a result of the earthquake.
The Tanimbar Islands are a group of around 30 islands between East Timor and Papua in the Arafura Sea. Indonesia's 17,508 islands are spread across the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' which is a highly seismically active zone.
A large number of earthquakes and volcanic activity occur due to different plates on the Earth's crust colliding along the archipelago. The country has 120 active volcanoes, several of which have erupted recently.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, on the island of Flores, erupted twice in two months on June 17 and again on July 7. Both eruptions caused dozens of international flights to be delayed or cancelled after plumes of ash shot as high as 17km into the sky.
MAGMA, Indonesia's internal geohazard and volcanology agency, issued its highest-level emergency alert on the island of Flores following the second eruption. There were no reports of casualties, damages or evacuations caused by either eruption but nine people were killed when the same volcano erupted November 2024.
