A powerful earthquake rattles Indonesia, but no injuries have been recorded.

A powerful earthquake rattles Indonesia, but no injuries have been recorded.

(Jakarta, Indonesia) — On Saturday, a large underwater earthquake jolted Indonesia's northernmost region of Aceh, but there were no early reports of significant damage or deaths, and officials claimed there was no fear of a tsunami.

When the pre-dawn earthquake occurred, witnesses claimed many people fled to higher ground, but they subsequently got text messages claiming there was no threat of a tsunami. In 2004, a major earthquake off the coast of Aceh caused a catastrophic tsunami that killed around 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

The magnitude 6.2 quake struck at a depth of 49 kilometers (30.4 miles) and was centered 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) south-southwest of Meulaboh, a coastal city in Aceh province.

The earthquake was estimated at magnitude 6.4 by the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency. Early measurement variations are typical.

Indonesia is a seismically active archipelago with a population of 270 million people that is regularly hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and tsunamis.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck West Sumatra province in February, killing at least 25 people and injuring over 460 others. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in West Sulawesi province killed over 100 people and wounded almost 6,500.