A powerful 7-magnitude earthquake has struck off the North Coast of Java, sending shockwaves across the island and beyond, from Jakarta in the west to Bali, Lombok and the island of Sumbawa, some 1200 kilometres to the east.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that the earthquake occurred at 4.55pm local time Friday and was detected in the sea, 68 kilometres northwest of Tuban, East Java, at a depth of 632 kilometres. The agency’s modelling result confirmed that it had no potential to trigger a tsunami but warned of potential aftershocks.
Although BMKG initially recorded the quake as 6.6-magnitude it was subsequently upgraded to 6.9-magnitude. A 5.5 magnitude quake occurred a short distance away from the first, around 30 minutes later.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the original earthquake as magnitude 7.0.
Videos circulating on social media showed local residents and tourists in neighbouring provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and Bali panicking as houses and buildings swayed for several seconds. Some places ordered evacuations, sending streams of people into the streets.
Despite the strength of the quake, minimal damage was reported and no lives were lost.
The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire.”
In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
Source – AP News, Tempo.co