A strong and shallow earthquake hit the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi early Monday April 25, 2011, officials said. Some homes were damaged, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 6.2-magnitude quake at a depth of 6-miles (9 kilometers) was centered 45-miles (75 kilometers) southeast of the town of Kendari.
The quake was followed by three strong aftershocks.
According to Andre Wijaya an official at Indonesia’s geological and meteorological agency in Kendari the earth shook violently in the Sulawesi town.
Wijaya said the quake damaged several houses with walls cracked and windows shattered, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Indonesia includes a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A huge quake off the country that triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh.