Strong 6.8 quake hits near East Timor

A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck deep beneath the seabed near East Timor on Tuesday but no tsunami warning was issued, a local geophysics agency said.

The quake hit at 13:57 pm (0657 GMT) at a depth of 469 kilometre (291 miles), about 271 kilometre northeast of the capital, Dili, according to Indonesia's geophysics agency.

"We did not issue a tsunami warning. There are no reports of damage so far," said Novita, an official at Indonesia's national quake centre.

"The quake was felt by the people in Timor island, but not strongly," she said.

East Timor sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high seismic activity.

Earthquake San Francisco including Bay Area Felt !

In some non horror news, a 4.1 magnitude Earthquake was felt in San Francisco as well as in San Jose and the Bay area today. According to sources, small jolts were felt around the northern California area, but scientists say though it was nerve racking, it was also common and routine.

The epicenter of today's California earthquake was 13 miles southeast of San Jose's City Hall and occurred at 4:10 p.m. on Friday, within a patch of rocks deep underground near the Calaveras Fault in a remote oak-studded landscape.

"It's not unusual for the Calaveras to have magnitude 4 quakes, which may knock things off shelves but are unlikely to cause any structural damage," said USGS seismologist David Oppenheimer, based in Menlo Park.