Strong Earthquake Rocks Indonesia's Sumatra Island

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ A strong undersea earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's Sumatra island Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. <br/><br/>The 6.7-magnitude

Thursday, September 20th 2007, 7:54 am

By: News On 6

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ A strong undersea earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's Sumatra island Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.7-magnitude quake that struck at 3:31 p.m. (4:31 a.m. EDT) was centered 47 miles under the earth's surface, about 79 miles southwest of Painan, a town in West Sumatra province.

Yusuf, an official at the Jakarta office of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said the temblor was felt in cities along the west coast of Sumatra, but added there was no indication it would trigger a tsunami.

The latest temblor followed last week's 8.4-magnitude quake that triggered a 10-foot-high tsunami.

At least 23 people were killed as the quake destroyed hundreds of houses along the western coast of Sumatra. More than 60 strong aftershocks have followed the massive earthquake _ including two at magnitudes 7.8 and 7.1.

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

A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed more than 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and left half a million homeless.