Strong, deep earthquake shakes area off Indonesia; no damage

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In this August 8, 2018 file photo, A military paramedic tends to a boy who's head was injured from Sunday's earthquake at a makeshift hospital in Kayangan, Lombok Island, Indonesia. The north of Lombok has been devastated by the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Sunday night, damaging thousands of buildings and killing dozens.

A strong earthquake located far below the Earth’s surface shook an area in Indonesia’s Flores Sea, causing shaking on land but no damage, officials said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake on Friday night had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and was located 109 km northwest of the village of Kampungbajo in central Indonesia at a depth of 539 km. Deep earthquakes generally cause less damage.

The national disaster agency said the earthquake was felt widely, including on Lombok Island where more than 400 died in a magnitude 7 quake earlier this month. It said no damage was reported and the quake didn’t have the potential to cause a tsunami.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.