Moderate Quake Hits Simeulue Island

BANDA ACEH, Feb 5 (TAG) – A 5.1-magnitude moderate earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Aceh province’s Simeulue Island Sunday, but no sending panicked the islanders and Indonesian’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency also no issued a tsunami warning.

The agency noted on its website that the under-sea quake hit at 12:10 p.m with an epicenter 335 kilometers southwest of the Simeulue island’s capital Sinabang and a depth of 45 kilometers.

Abdul Karim, an islander in Sinabang to the Aceh Globe that he didn’t feel the quake as residents preparing the celebration event of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

“The people here doing activities as usual and no panicked. Many of residents didn’t feel the tremor,” he said.

There were five quakes measuring up to 5 magnitude that felt by people hit Indonesian’s Aceh province since January. The biggest one struck on January 11 with 7.3 magnitude which sending residents onto the streets and in search of higher ground.

Aceh was the worst-affected area by the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami -- triggered by a giant 9.3-magnitude earthquake -- that claimed 220,000 lives, three-quarters of them in the northern tip of Sumatra’s province.

A powerful earthquake hit Sumatra in September 2009, killing more than 1,000 people, and seismologists have warned of the likelihood of another large quake in the coming years.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.[]