Bandung, July 31 -- The magnitude 8.7 earthquake that struck Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday serves as a stark warning to countries along the Pacific Ring of Fire, including Indonesia, according to an expert.

"The large earthquake, which also triggered a tsunami, should not be seen as merely a local disaster," an earthquake expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Professor Irwan Meilano, said here on Thursday.

As ITB's Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, Meilano emphasized that the incident should be treated as a serious cautionary signal for all nations in the region.

"This earthquake occurred in a seismic gap zone-an area with a history of major quakes but one that had been inactive for a long time....