Scientists warned Thursday of rising seismic activity in southern areas of Java, mainly south of West Java, urging residents to remain alert.
A 5.8-magnitude quake struck Thursday morning and was centered 145 kilometers northwest of the West Java town of Sukabumi at a depth of 10 meters below sea level.
There were no reports of casualties and damage but the tremor was felt in Bandung, Garut, Tasikmalaya and even Jakarta, located about 200 kilometers away.
“I wondered why my bed was shaking vigorously,” said North Bandung resident Linda Damajanti Sukmana on Thursday. “Then I realized it’s a quake.”
People living in Sukabumi coastal area rushed out of their houses when the quake hit, Najmudin Aziz, Cipatujah subdistrict head Najmudin Aziz told Antara, adding the quake did not cause any damage or injuries.
Geologist Danny Hilman Natawijaya of the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) urged residents to remain alert, saying there would be continual tremors along the Indo-Australian-Eurasian fault line, which stretches from Andaman Island to Sumatra, the southern part of Java and Maluku.
He said southern Java was included in the “seismic gap”, or quiet path, because based on historical records, no massive quake measuring more than 8 magnitudes had occurred in the area over the past 30 years.
However, experts have begun paying attention to potential earthquakes and tsunamis in South Java after a 6.8-magnitude quake-triggered tsunami struck and killed more than 130 residents along south Java coast, especially in West Java, on July 17, 2006.
”We must stay alert as the southern part of Java is part of the subduction zone, despite no records of quakes measuring more than 8 magnitudes there. The potential of a massive quake is always there,” Danny told The Jakarta Post in Bandung on Thursday.
Bandung BMG geophysics observation staff member, Pepen Supendi, said that after the 2006 tsunami, a massive quake jolted West Java again on Sept. 2, 2009, killing at least 30 people, destroying hundreds of homes and displacing more than 1,000 people.
Six earthquakes, measuring greater than 5 magnitudes occurred again after the 2009 quake, including the 6.3-magnitude quake in June this year, which reportedly destroyed dozens of homes in Salopa, south of Tasikmalaya.
“The process of the shift and meeting of the Indo-Australian-Eurasian plates has apparently occurred in the southern part of Java so the possibility of quakes is imminent.
During the shift, they gather energy, and if rocks are unable to withstand the energy, a quake occurs,” said Pepen.
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