Strong, deep earthquake shakes area off Indonesia; no damage

A strong earthquake located far below the Earth's surface shook an area in Indonesia's Flores Sea, causing shaking on land but no damage, officials said.

The US Geological Survey said the quake yesterday had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and was located 109 kilometers northwest of the village of Kampungbajo in central Indonesia at a depth of 539 kilometers. Deep earthquakes generally cause less damage.

The national disaster agency said the earthquake was felt widely, including on Lombok Island where more than 400 died in a magnitude 7 quake earlier this month. It said no damage was reported and the quake didn't have the potential to cause a tsunami.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.