Series of earthquakes shake Indonesia

By Ludya Arica Bakti in Indonesia
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

 An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 occurred on the afternoon of June 9, making residents in South Buru Regency panicky and scattered outside the house. They claimed to have felt the tremor for at least five seconds. The earthquake shock was also felt in other areas of Buru Regency.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) released the earthquake parameters around 11.56 West Indonesia Time. 

The strength of the earthquake which was updated to magnitude 5.8 occurred at a depth of 20 km and the location of this seismic earthquake was 68 km to the south of Namrole City, South Buru Regency in Maluku province. The earthquake had no tsunami potential.

Based on the shock map, the BMKG records earthquake shocks which is measured by the Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) units as Namrole III-IV MMI, Piru III MMI, Namlea II-III MMI and Ambon II MMI. 

The MMI Scale III provides a picture of shocks or vibrations that are felt in real at home whereas MMI IV scale explains the vibrations felt by many people in the house, outside by some people, broken pottery, rattling windows or doors and walls sounding. 

The head of the BMKG Earthquake and Tsunami Center, Rahmat Triyono, disclosed that, seeing the epicenter location and depth of the hypocenter, the earthquake that occurred was a type of shallow earthquake due to local fault activity. Until 12:23 West Indonesian Time (WIT), the BMKG monitoring results had not shown any aftershock earthquake activity.

It may be recalled that Banten Province was rocked by an earthquake three times only the other day (June 8). 

The first earthquake occurred early morning, at around 00:23 WIT, magnitude 4.0. The earthquake was located at 7.1 South Latitude (LS), 106.07 East Longitude (BT), 62 kilometers (Km) southwest of Lebak Regency, Banten, with a depth of the epicenter 17 km. 

The second earthquake followed at 05.26 WIT with weaker strength, having magnitude of 2.6. With a depth of 9 km, its location was at 6.8 LS-106.34 east of Bayah, Lebak Regency, Banten. 

Furthermore, the third aftershock magnitude 3.3 was recorded at 14.33 WIT with the location being at 6.96 LS-105.23 East, located 50 km Southwest of Sumur, Pandeglang Regency, Banten, with an earthquake centre depth of 8 km. 

Banten had also endured a series of earthquakes the previous day (June 7) as the BMKG recorded at least nine earthquakes having shaken the area. The results of the analysis of the source mechanism showed that the earthquake had a mechanism of sliding or strike slip.