Quake jolts Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): A major earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale jolted Irian Jaya province yesterday afternoon, with Paniai regency the hardest hit area.

Margiono, an official of the National Quake Center at the Meteorological and Geophysics office told The Jakarta Post that the quake struck at 1:03 p.m. Eastern Indonesian Time with the epicenter located in the sea off Cendrawasih Bay.

The center of the quake was recorded at 33 kilometers below the earth's surface.

Margiono said tremors were felt in Nabire and Eranatoli as well as in Timika where PT Freeport Indonesia, an enormous copper mining company, is located.

People in those areas said the tremors caused windows and walls to shake and pottery to break.

No casualties were recorded through late yesterday afternoon, but Antara reported that the quake, which lasted for six seconds, destroyed a number of houses and badly damaged a junior high school.

It was the third earthquake to hit the regency this year.

Irian Jaya is a sparsely populated mountainous province. Earthquakes are common in the region.

In Nabire, an earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale occurred in April. No casualties were reported.

On Jan. 9, a quake measuring 5.5 shook the area, with tremors felt as far away as Biak, Timika and Wamena. The epicenter of that quake was near Napan Wainame, some 550 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital of Jayapura. (par)