Powerful quake hits off Indonesia's coast

JAKARTA, Indonesia A powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's main island of Java late Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was felt hundreds of kilometers away in the capital, Jakarta, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

It had no potential to cause a tsunami, said Subagio of the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, and no warnings were issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Subagio uses one name like many Indonesians.

The quake was 11 kilometers (7 miles) deep and the epicenter was located 170 kilometers (106 miles) east of Flying Fish Cove, on Australia's Christmas Island, and more than 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of Jakarta, according to the U.S. agency.

Subagio said the temblor was also felt across parts of west and central Java.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In 2004, a monster earthquake off Aceh, on the western tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia. Most of the deaths were in Aceh.