Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
| Photo Credit: AFP

A strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the southern part of Indonesia’s main island of Java on April 27, but there were no immediate reports of injury or significant property damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Banjar city at a depth of 68.3 kilometers (42.4 miles). There was no tsunami warning.

High-rises in the capital Jakarta swayed for around a minute and two-story homes shook strongly in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung and in Jakarta’s satellite cities of Depok, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi. The quake was also felt in other cities in West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java province, according to Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.

The agency warned of possible aftershocks.

Earthquakes are frequent across the sprawling archipelago nation, but they are rarely felt in Jakarta.

Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2022 killed at least 602 people in West Java’s Cianjur city. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.

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.

Jakarta:

An undersea quake with a magnitude of 6.5 jolted Indonesia’s West Java province on Saturday night, without triggering giant waves, the country’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said.

The earthquake occurred at 23:29 Jakarta time (1629 GMT) on Saturday with its epicentre located 151 km southwest of Garut Regency and a depth of 10 km, the agency said.

The tremors of the quake were also felt in nearby Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and the nearby province of Banten, as well as the provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java, it said.

In West Java province, the intensity of the quake was felt at IV MMI (Modified Mercally Intensity) in Sukabumi town and Tasikmalaya town, and III to IV MMI in Bandung city, the capital of West Java province, the agency said.

There was no tsunami alert issued by the agency as the tremors would not potentially trigger giant waves, Xinhua news agency reported.

Indonesia, an archipelagic nation, is prone to earthquakes because of its position on a vulnerable quake-hit zone, called the “Pacific Ring of Fire.”

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