An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted Ternate, North Maluku, on Monday at 4.07 am Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB), ANTARA reported. The quake's epicenter was located at 2.14 degrees northern latitude, 128.30 degrees eastern longitude, and at a depth of 19 km below sea level. The temblor was also located 183 km northeast of Ternate, 272 km southeast of Melonguane (North Sulawesi), and 322 km northeast of Labuha (North Maluku). As a country located in the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire" of volcanoes and earthquakes, Indonesia is one of the world's most disaster-prone countries. Earlier in the wee hours of Monday, a magnitude-5.5 earthquake jolted Meulaboh, Aceh Province. The quake's epicenter was located at 4.45 degrees northern latitude and 96.39 degrees eastern longitude, and at a depth of 45 km, the Aceh meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) said. A number of residents of Ujong Kalak village, Meulaboh, rushed out of their houses in panic when they felt the temblor.
