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6.1-magnitude quake strikes off Timor Leste
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Timor Leste on Friday.
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The border gate between Indonesia and Timor Leste at Motaain in Atambua is visible in the background in this undated file photo. People in both Timor Leste and parts of neighboring Indonesia felt the rumblings of a 6.1-magnitude earthquake on May 27, 2022, although the extent of the damage remains unclear. (Shutterstock/Sony Herdiana)
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6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Timor Leste on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, with tremors felt as far as the Australian city of Darwin, although there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The USGS said the quake hit at a depth of 51 kilometers off the eastern tip of Timor island, which is split between Timor Leste and Indonesia.
An AFP journalist in Timor Leste’s capital Dili felt the earthquake and said that, although it lasted only seconds, “the jolt was quite strong”.
“I saw people rushing out of their homes and children running outside of the school,” the journalist said.
The earthquake was more violent around the town of Lospalos in the east of the country, but local authorities were still assessing the situation and did not give a breakdown of the damage or possible casualties.
The quake was also felt in Darwin, Australia, which lies across the Timor Sea from the epicenter.
Darwin resident Joel Willingale, who works in heavy manufacturing, said “it went on for about 30 seconds”.
“The whole room shook and slammed down,” he said.
“We only really feel the effects of a quake occasionally, usually in the Banda Sea. But this one was a big one.”
The Banda Sea lies north of Timor island.
To the north in Indonesia, the earthquake triggered panic and prompted people to evacuate buildings in the southwest of the Maluku archipelago, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
Authorities did not report any damage or casualties.
The United Nations’ tsunami monitoring agency warned that the quake “could generate a tsunami affecting the Indian Ocean region”.
No national authority in the region has yet issued a tsunami warning, however.
“No #tsunami threat to Australia from #earthquake felt in Darwin, NT,” said Australia's Bureau of Meteorology in a tweet.
Timor Leste and Indonesia sit on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
In February, a 6.2-magnitude quake killed a dozen people when it struck Indonesia’s North Sumatra.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake hit the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.
Timor Leste has a population of about 1.3 million and is Southeast Asia’s youngest country, recently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia.
The mostly rural economy has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the World Bank saying 42 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
