A 6.7-magnitude earthquake rattled Indonesia’s Sulawesi island on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring dozens more, according to the country’s disaster mitigation agency.
Indonesia’s geophysics agency, known as BMKG, reported that the quake hit Tuesday morning, with its epicenter located approximately 42 kilometers — about 26 miles — southeast of the town of Palu, at a depth of 10 kilometers.
The disaster agency confirmed late Tuesday that one fatality occurred in the Sigi region, though no additional details about the death were provided. A total of 38 people sustained injuries.
The earthquake left a trail of destruction across Central Sulawesi province, damaging a road that links three separate regions. Officials also reported damage to 67 homes, bridges, offices, and places of worship.
Authorities confirmed the earthquake did not generate a tsunami — a relief given the area’s history. In 2018, a much stronger 7.5-magnitude quake struck Palu and surrounding communities, unleashing a tsunami that reached heights of up to 6 meters, or roughly 20 feet, and claimed thousands of lives in one of the country’s most devastating recent disasters.
Indonesia sits within the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a seismically active zone of volcanoes and fault lines that stretches from South America all the way to the Russian Far East. The country’s location within this geologically complex region makes it especially vulnerable to earthquakes.
