JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong, deep earthquake struck the Indonesian capital and other parts of the main island of Java on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.
The skyscrapers of Jakarta, the capital, wobbled for several seconds and some ordered evacuations.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck at a depth of 123.7 kilometers (76.9 miles) centered 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) northwest of Ciranjang-hilir in West Java province, the same province where a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on November 21 in the city of Cianjur it killed at least 334 people and injured nearly 600.
It was the deadliest in Indonesia since the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi that killed an estimated 4,340 people. Also struck shallower than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).
Earthquakes occur frequently in the sprawling archipelago nation, but it’s rare for them to be felt in Jakarta.
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The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to 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 earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
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