Earthquake strikes off eastern Indonesia: no threat of tsunami, officials say

Earthquake strikes off eastern Indonesia: no threat of tsunami, officials say

The 6.1-magnitude quake was centered beneath the Banda Sea about 190 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," a string of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A 9.1-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, off the coast of Sumatra Island triggered a tsunami that killed more than 131,000 people in nearby Aceh province, and more than 100,000 others in nearly a dozen other countries, according to the AP.