Bengkulu was again shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale on Saturday at 9.45 am local time, after being previously hit by a magnitude-6.0 temblor. The quake's epicenter was located at 2.95 degrees southern latitude and 100.96 degrees eastern longitude, around 44 km southwest of Mukomuko, and at a depth of 10 km below sea level, ANTARA quoted the head of the Kepahiang Bengkulu meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency, Dadang, as saying here on Saturday. Last Thursday (Aug 4), an earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale shook Bengkulu Province and its environs. The temblor did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami but forced local residents to rush out of their houses in panic. The earthquake damaged several office buildings in Mukomuko and Kepahiang, including the Muko-muko regional legislative council building. Bengkulu had been hit by at least two major earthquakes in recent years. One happened in 2000 with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter Scale and another in 2007 registering 7.9 on the Richter Scale. The powerful earthquakes devastated thousands of houses and killed hundreds of people. Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 237 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.
