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According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 rocked Indonesia on Tuesday, prompting a tsunami warning from the country’s meteorological service.
The quake, which rocked Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province in the Flores Sea, was judged by authorities to be magnitude 7.5.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, on the other hand, estimated the earthquake’s magnitude to be 7.7 and its depth to be 5 kilometres.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in the United States, also warned that “dangerous” tsunami waves might hit coasts within 1,000 kilometres of the Indonesian earthquake’s epicentre.
The USGS stated that “previous earthquakes in this area have created secondary hazards such as tsunamis and landslides that may have contributed to losses,” despite the fact that it was an undersea earthquake.
Due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of severe seismic activity where tectonic plates meet that spans from Japan through Southeast Asia and throughout the Pacific basin, Indonesia experiences regular earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed 220,000 people across the region, including roughly 170,000 in Indonesia. It is still commonly considered to be one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.
Another big earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Lombok in 2018. About the next few weeks, many more shocks struck, killing over 550 people on the tourist island and nearby Sumbawa.
In the same year, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Palu, Sulawesi island, killed or injured over 4,300 people.
