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Published 09 Jan, 2013 03:55am

5.9 quake hits Myanmar-India border region: USGS

YANGON: A deep 5.9-magnitude quake rattled the India-Myanmar border region early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake struck at a depth of 75 kilometres , with its epicentre about 90 kilometres from Kohima, the capital of Nagaland in India's northeast.

There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties.

India's seven northeastern states, joined to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land, are located in an area of frequent seismic activity. The border region is remote and sparsely populated on the Myanmar side.

In November a powerful earthquake left more than 20 people dead and destroyed hundreds of buildings in Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay and surrounding villages.

Turkey quake

Earlier on Tuesday, an earthquake of 5.7 magnitude struck just off Turkey's northwestern Aegean coast, the US Geological Survey said, leaving no reports of casualties or damage even though people felt it it in Istanbul and Athens.

The quake occurred at at 14:16 GMT, 95 kilometres southwest of the Turkish city of Canakkale at a depth of 9.75 kilometres , said the Survey.

β€œIt was a very strong quake even though the epicentre was in the sea,” said an official at the Athens Geodynamic Institute which sited the quake 40 kilometres off the coast of the Greek island of Lemnos.

A police official in Lemnos told Reuters there were no reports of any injuries or damage on the island so far.

Greece is often rattled by earthquakes. Most cause no serious damage but a 5.9 magnitude quake in 1999 killed 143 people.

Turkey's disaster management authority (AFAD), which put the quake at a higher 6.2 magnitude, also said there had been no reports of injuries or damage to property in Turkey.

Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in Turkey, which is crisscrossed by geological fault lines. In October 2011, more than 600 people died in the eastern province of Van after a quake of 7.2 magnitude and powerful aftershocks.

About 20,000 people were killed in two separate earthquakes in northwestern Turkey in 1999.

Alaska tremors

A light earthquake has occurred near the spot where a major quake struck over the weekend in Alaska.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says the quake occurred before dawn Tuesday and had a preliminary magnitude of 4.0.

Saturday's powerful magnitude-7.5 earthquake prompted a tsunami warning along the Alaskan and Canadian coastline.

The alert was canceled when no damaging waves were generated.

Tuesday's quake likely was one of several aftershocks that have occurred

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