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Magnitude 6.3 quake hits Papua

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at around 5:24 pm (0824 GMT), was around 193 kilometres northwest of the town of Abepura in Papua, USGS said. 

Agencies
Jakarta
Tue, August 12, 2025 Published on Aug. 12, 2025 Published on 2025-08-12T16:36:15+07:00

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The earthquake struck at 2:33 p.m. Jakarta time with an epicenter 56 kilometers northwest of Saumlaki village in Maluku at a depth of 63 kilometers. The scale of the earthquake then updated by the agency to the magnitude of 6. The earthquake struck at 2:33 p.m. Jakarta time with an epicenter 56 kilometers northwest of Saumlaki village in Maluku at a depth of 63 kilometers. The scale of the earthquake then updated by the agency to the magnitude of 6. (Twitter/@infoBMKG)

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Papua on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, but a monitor said there was no tsunami threat.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at around 5:24 pm (0824 GMT), was around 193 kilometres northwest of the town of Abepura in Papua, USGS said. 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

USGS earlier gave a magnitude of 6.5 before revising it downward.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.5, higher from an earlier estimate of 6.1 magnitude.

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The quake was at a depth of 17 km (10.56 miles), it added.

The vast archipelago nation experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A magnitude 6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.

And in 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.

 

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