A powerful undersea earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Friday, but was centered too deep to trigger a tsunami or cause serious damage, officials said.The 6.8-magnitude quake in the Banda Sea hit 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the coastal town of Baubau on Sulawesi, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was centered at a depth of 375 miles (600 kilometers), it said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake was too far below the Earth's surface to trigger a tsunami, and residents of South Sulawesi said they didn't feel anything.
"We weren't aware that a strong earthquake happened," Andini Hajar, a resident of Baubau, said by telephone. "There wasn't any shaking."
Indonesia, a vast archipelago, straddles continental plates and is prone to seismic activity along what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused a powerful tsunami in December 2004 that killed around 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
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