Strong undersea earthquake rocks eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ A magnitude 6.8 undersea earthquake rocked parts of eastern Indonesia on Friday, seismologists said. There were no reports of damage. <br><br>The temblor struck at 10:28 a.m.

Friday, October 19th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ A magnitude 6.8 undersea earthquake rocked parts of eastern Indonesia on Friday, seismologists said. There were no reports of damage.

The temblor struck at 10:28 a.m. beneath the Banda Sea, about 120 miles east of the Raha and Buton Islands, off the southeast tip of Sulawesi, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The agency said there were no reports of tsunamis, or large waves caused by seismic upheavals.

Earlier, the Australian Seismological Center estimated the quake's magnitude as 7.5 and warned it might have triggered tsunamis in the shallow waters of the Banda Sea, about 1,100 miles east of Jakarta.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation, is prone to seismic upheavals because of its location on the so-called Pacific ``Ring of Fire.''