Earthquake Jolts Jakarta
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A powerful earthquake under the Java Sea shook Indonesia’s capital early Thursday, violently shaking tall buildings and panicking residents.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 and was centered about 66 miles east of Jakarta at a depth of 180 miles.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed more than 131,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh province and left half a million homeless.
