An earthquake in eastern Indonesia injures 20 people and causes material damage

struck earthquake eastern Indonesia late Wednesday, damaging dozens of homes and injuring at least 20 people, a local official said Thursday.
The shallow quake struck at a depth of 10.4 kilometers (6 miles) and was centered about 104 kilometers (65 miles) east of Maumere in East Nusa Tenggara province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The tremors were felt most strongly on the small island of Adonara, where more than 100 homes were damaged and at least 20 people were injured, local official Ismail Daton Ban said.

Frequent earthquakes

Indonesia and its neighboring countries are prone to frequent earthquakes due to their location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia to the Pacific basin.
In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck Aceh province in the far west, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 170,000 people. Shallow earthquakes are generally more destructive because their waves travel a shorter distance through the Earth and reach the surface with greater energy.