The earthquake struck at 4.10pm local time (10.10am BST) with the epicentre recorded in the city of Ternate on Halmahera, the largest island in the North Maluku province. The US Geological Survey (USGS) has reported the quake at a depth of six miles (10km), shallow enough to cause serious damage. Aftershocks are continuing as residents flee their homes.
Has a tsunami warning been issued?
Indonesia’s meteorology agency said there is no tsunami potential from the quake.
Iksan Subur, an official with Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said: “There are no reports of infrastructure damage yet.
“But people panicked and ran out of their houses.
“Some people who live near the ocean are starting to move to higher ground.”
The initial quake was followed by a 5.8 magnitude temblor half an hour later.
Why does Indonesia get so many quakes?
Indonesia, an island archipelago made up of more than 17,000 volcanic islands, is part of the infamous ‘Ring of Fire’.
The Ring of Fire is a massive horseshoe-shaped ring encircling the Pacific basin made up of a string of volcanoes and seismic activity.
The Ring of Fire is a result of the earth’s oceanic plates and continental plates interacting, which has led to the massive activity which is associated with the area.
About 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, which is dotted with 75 percent of all the active volcanoes on earth.
A string of 452 volcanoes stretches from the southern tip of South America, up the coast of the Americas, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan and into New Zealand.
In total, the ring forms a 25,000-mile arc from the boundary of the Pacific Plate, to the Cocos and Nazca Plates that line the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
The ring is the result of tectonic plates – huge slabs of the earth’s crust which fit together like a puzzle to make up the earth’s surface.
The plates are not fixed, but constantly moving on top of a layer of solid and molten (liquid) rock, called the earth’s mantle.
Sometimes, these plates collide, move apart, or slide against each other, which results in an earthquake.
The volcanoes form when one plate is pushed under another into the mantle through a process known as subduction.
This releases pressure, causing the molten rock to push up through the earth.