2 earthquakes rock east Indonesia, no casualties

Jakarta, Mar 18: Two earthquakes hit eastern Indonesian regions today, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, a meteorological official said.

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale struck Papua province at 0754 hrs said an official at the National Metereology and Geophysics Agency.

It was centred 147 km northwest of the provincial capital, Jayapura, at a depth of 78 km, the official said.

Earlier, a 5.9 magnitude quake jolted Ternate on the Moluccas islands, at 2312 hrs. The undersea quake had a depth of 57 km and was centred some 126 km northwest of Ternate.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. Its 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the ''Pacific Ring of Fire''.

Reuters