Quake jolts Irian Jaya

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)