Moderate quake strikes eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An undersea earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted Indonesia's eastern Moluccas island chain on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of any damage, a meteorological agency official said.

The epicenter of the quake lay at a depth of 39 km (24 miles) under the sea about 104 km southwest of Ternate, capital of North Moluccas province, Andi Zulfikar, an earthquake analyst at the meteorology and geophysics agency, said.

He said no tsunami warning had been issued.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, which lies in the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire".

A devastating Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by a giant undersea earthquake off Indonesia's Aceh province in December 2004 left hundreds of thousands dead or homeless across the region.