Initial 5.6 magnitude earthquake hits Jakarta

Jakarta: A moderate intensity earthquake struck Indonesia’s main island Java and parts of the country’s capital late Sunday (February 25). There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the shallow earthquake had an initial magnitude of 5.6 and occurred 37.2 km below the surface. The epicenter was 80 km west-southwest of the coastal city of Pelabuhanratu in West Java province.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency measured its initial intensity at a depth of 5.7 and 10 km. Variation in initial measurements of earthquakes is common.

The earthquake was felt strongly in many towns and villages and some people panicked, said Dariono, head of the agency’s earthquake and tsunami center.

Dariono, who like many Indonesians goes by the same name, said there was no threat of a tsunami but warned of possible aftershocks.

High-rise buildings in the capital Jakarta shook for several seconds, and even two-story houses in the West Java provincial capital Bandung and Jakarta’s satellite cities Bogor and Bekasi shook strongly.

Earthquakes occur frequently in the vast archipelago country, but it is unusual for them to be felt in Jakarta.

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

Last year, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake killed at least 602 people in the city of Cianjur in West Java. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 4,300 people.

In 2004, an extremely powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh province of Indonesia.