Deep, 5.8 magnitude quake shakes Indonesia’s capital

JAKARTA: A strong and deep earthquake shook Indonesia’s capital and other parts of the main island Java on Thursday but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.

High-rises in Jakarta, the capital, swayed for several seconds and some ordered evacuations.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook at a depth of 123.7 kilometers (76.9 miles) centered 14 km (8.7 miles) northwest of Ciranjang-hilir in West Java province, the same province where a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 21 in Cianjur city killed at least 334 people and injured nearly 600.

It was the deadliest in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed about 4,340 people. It also struck at a shallower depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

Earthquakes occur frequently across the sprawling archipelago nation, but it is uncommon for them to be felt in Jakarta.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of 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 Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.