A tectonic earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale shook northwest of Ternate, North Maluku Province, on Monday at around 01.50 pm Western Indonesian Time (WIB), ANTARA reported. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at 1.53 degrees northern latitude and 126.62 degrees eastern longitude, around 117 km northwest of Ternate at a depth of 54 km below the sea level, according to information from the Kotabumi meteorological and geophysics office, here on Monday. Indonesia sits on the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire" and experiences frequent earthquakes as well as tsunamis triggered by underwater earthquakes. On December 26, 2004, Aceh province and Nias Island (North Sumatra province) were devastated by a massive earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale and a subsequent deadly tsunami which killed at least 170,000 people.
