Powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia's Molucca Sea sets off small tsunami

An earthquake in the Molucca Sea set off small tsunami waves in northern Indonesia, but no damage or casualties have been reported.

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit early Thursday local time and was centered 79 miles west-northwest of Ternate in North Maluku province at a depth of 22 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency issued a tsunami warning following the quake, though it said the threat level remained under close monitoring.

Tsunami waves were recorded at several monitoring stations less than half an hour later, including in Bitung with a height of 8 inches and in West Halmahera with a height of a foot.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said small waves were possible as well in Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea, but there was no threat to Hawaii, Guam and other more distant islands.

There were no immediate reports of damage, injuries or fatalities in Indonesia, and local disaster mitigation agencies and Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency had not yet released official assessments.

The quake was strongly felt in Bitung, a coastal city in North Sulawesi province, where residents rushed out of their homes in fear.

"We had just woken up and suddenly the earthquake hit... we all ran out of the house," resident Marten Mandagi said. "The shaking was very strong,"

Mandagi said he had not seen any damage in his area. "We're still checking whether there is damage or not. But here we are safe, there are no casualties or destruction," he said.

Authorities urged residents in coastal areas to remain calm, stay alert and follow official instructions as monitoring continues.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 280 million people, sits on major seismic faults and is frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In 2022, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake killed at least 602 people in West Java's Cianjur city, the deadliest one in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.

In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.