Dozens dead in latest Aceh quake. Here’s a list of major Indonesian earthquakes.

A powerful 6.5-magnitude quake struck off Aceh province on Indonesia’s Sumatra island Wednesday, December 7 killing at least 97 people as rescue workers continued to pull more bodies from the rubble of scores of shattered buildings.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Aceh lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which is particularly prone to quakes.

Here is a chronology of the largest quakes to hit Indonesia in recent years: 

December 26, 2004: A massive earthquake measuring 9.1 on the open-ended Richter scale strikes off the coast of Sumatra and triggers a tsunami that kills 170,000 people in Indonesia, and more than 220,000 throughout the region. It is the world’s third biggest quake since 1900, and lifts the ocean floor in some places by 15 metres (50 feet). The province of Aceh is the hardest hit area, but the tsunami affects coasts as far away as Africa.

March 28, 2005: A quake measuring 8.7 strikes off the coast of Sumatra, killing 900 people and injuring 6,000. It causes widespread destruction on the western island of Nias.

May 27, 2006: A 6.3-magnitude quake rocks a densely populated region of Java near the city of Yogyakarta, killing 6,000 people and injuring 50,000. Some 330,000 houses and 12,000 schools are either destroyed or damaged.

July 17, 2006: An offshore earthquake measuring 7.7 triggers a tsunami that hits the southwestern coast of Java near the resort of Pangandaran, killing more than 600 people.

September 2, 2009: More than 100 people die when Java is hit by a 7.0-magnitude quake.

September 30, 2009: A 7.6-magnitude quake hits Padang, a major port on the west coast of Sumatra, killing around 1,000 people. Almost a half million others are left homeless after some 100,000 homes are destroyed.

October 25, 2010: More than 430 people die when a 7.7-magnitude quake and a tsunami hits the isolated region of Mentawai, off the coast of Sumatra. Several villages are destroyed by waves more than 3 metres (10 feet) high which extend up to 600 metres (yards) inland. Around 15,000 people are left homeless. – Rappler.com