Jakarta

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck northern Sumatra in Indonesia on Sunday. The earthquake occurred at 19:39:04 (UTC+05:30) at a depth of 54.2 km.

According to USGS, the epicentre of the earthquake was found at 5.354°N and 94.569°E respectively. No reports of any physical damage or casualties are known so far. Indonesia, a country of over 270 million people, is frequently affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the “Ring of Fire”. The Ring of Fire, or Circum-Pacific Belt, is a tract along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.

It is a horseshoe-shaped belt about 40,000 km long and about 500 km wide that contains two-thirds of the world’s volcanoes and 90 per cent of Earth’s earthquakes.