Indonesia Tsunami Warning Lifted After 7.1 Earthquake

Jakarta Globe, Nov 15, 2014

A screenshot of the USGS website showing the series of earthquakes in
eastern Indonesia on Saturday. (JG Photo)

Jakarta. Indonesian authorities have lifted a tsunami warning after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake hit the east of the country on Saturday morning.

The quake struck at 9:31 a.m. some 156 kilometers northwest of the island of Ternate in the Malukus. Several aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 4.3 to 5.8 were registered as of 1:13 p.m., according to the United States Geological Survey.

The initial quake prompted a tsunami warning from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), but the waves generated were not as high as feared in places such as Jailolo and Tobelo, in the Maluku chain, and in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The BMKG withdrew its tsunami warning at 13:45 p.m. in the affected area, while the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said it would continue to monitor the seismic activity in the region.

“Any time there’s a tsunami warning, the people must evacuate to higher ground,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the BNPB, adding that in that particular region, there was only a 30-minute window for an evacuation, given the speed at which the tsunami waves moved.

The region, where the Eurasian and Filipino tectonic plates meet, has a history of earthquakes capable of generating tsunamis. The last recorded tsunami was in 1932, when a quake of magnitude 8.3 struck. Before that, a 7.4 quake in 1858 also generated a tsunami.