Another Quake in the Pacific “Ring of Fire”

A strong earthquake rocked the town of Bengkulu on Sumatra Island on Saturday, but there were no reports of damage or casualties, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. The magnitude 5.7 quake struck at 6:07 a.m. and was centred beneath the Indian Ocean, about 120 miles southwest of Bengkulu, the agency's Jakarta office is quoted by the Associated Press as saying. It was the second earthquake to hit Bengkulu, about 300 miles northwest of Jakarta, this month. A 5.5-magnitude quake hit April 1st but also caused no damage. In June, a 7.9 quake killed at least 100 people and wrecked hundreds of buildings and homes in the town. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation, is prone to seismic upheavals because it sits on the so-called Pacific ''Ring of Fire.''