Moderate Earthquake in Eastern Indonesia

With Indonesia sitting on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where there is a meeting of the continental plates it is understandable that this causes high volcanic and seismic activity. There are constant movements with the plates and earthquakes are happening continuously.

A moderate quake with a magnitude of 5.0 jolted islands in Indonesia's Ceram Sea early Sunday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake occurred at 4:41 am with its epicentre 312 kilometres south of Sorong in the eastern province of Irian Jaya and was at a depth of 14 kilometres according to the US Geological Survey.

The readings are based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale now used by US seismologists which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

Mild tremors are felt daily by people living near volatile volcanoes such as Gunung Merapi in Central Java. There have been times when I have been up around Gunung Agung in Bali and felt small tremors. But these do not necessarily mean there is going to be an eruption. It takes a massive move of the tectonic plates for this to occur as was the vase in Central Java recently.