(Jakarta) A strong earthquake, of magnitude 7, was recorded at sea north of the Indonesian island of Java on Friday, announced the American geological agency (USGS), but the authorities do not expect significant damage because of its depth.
The Indonesian geological agency for its part ruled out the risk of a tsunami after this earthquake detected at a significant depth of 594 km at 4:55 p.m. local time (5:55 a.m. Eastern time).
The earthquake’s epicenter was detected more than 96 km from Tuban and 157 km from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second most populous city.
The tremor was felt over a large part of the island of Java, slightly in the capital Jakarta, and as far as the islands of Bali and Lombok.
Klistjart Tarissa, a 25-year-old resident of Bandung (West Java), told AFP that she was “a little panicked” after “felt the tremor considerably, because I was on the second floor”.
“In Surabaya, it was felt a little, lamps swayed” and the phenomenon lasted “a while”, said an AFP journalist on the spot. “People in restaurants panicked and rushed outside.”
In Jogjakarta, Central Java, panicked students fled during an online class.
“I felt a jolt that was quite strong and long, I took off my headphones and rushed outside,” said Simon Arsa Manggala, 33, a teacher in this city.
An aftershock measured at 5.5 by the Indonesian Geology Agency was recorded in the same area about an hour after the main tremor.
Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the disaster management agency, said the quake, while “widely felt”, “is not expected to cause significant damage because the quake is not close to the surface.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plates collide.
On November 21, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit West Java Province, killing more than 600 people.
The deadliest earthquake in Indonesia, which occurred off Sumatra on December 26, 2004, killed more than 230,000 people as far away as Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. It had caused gigantic waves, up to 30 meters high on the shore of Banda Aceh, in northern Sumatra. It was magnitude 9.1.
