A powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked the southern part of Java, Indonesia’s main island, on Saturday. There were no immediate reports of injuries or significant damage to property. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake struck about 102 kilometers south of Banjar city, at a depth of approximately 68.3 kilometers, without issuing a tsunami warning.
In Jakarta, the capital city, high-rise buildings swayed for about a minute, while two-story homes experienced strong shaking in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, as well as in Jakarta’s surrounding cities like Depok, Tangerang, Bogor, and Bekasi.
The tremors were also felt in other cities across West Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java, as stated by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency, which warned of possible aftershocks.
Despite the frequency of earthquakes across Indonesia’s vast archipelago, Jakarta rarely feels their impact. Indonesia, with a population of 270 million people, is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” making it susceptible to seismic activity due to its position on major geological faults.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2022 claimed the lives of at least 602 people in Cianjur city, West Java, marking it as the deadliest earthquake since the devastating 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi, which claimed over 4,300 lives. Additionally, in 2004, a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami, resulting in the loss of more than 230,000 lives across several countries, predominantly in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
(Inputs from AP)