93 Earthquakes Occur In Sumbawa For A Week, BMKG Reminds Residents To Stay Alert

Illustration of an earthquake. (Between)

SUMBAWA - The Sumba Island region, East Nusa Tenggara, experienced 93 earthquakes during the week from April 29 to May 5, 2022.

Head of the East Sumba Geophysics Station, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Kustoro Hariyatmoko, said the earthquake had an average magnitude of between 3-5 and 18 times or 17.2 percent of the total incident.

"Earthquake events are dominated by magnitude smaller or equal to magnitude (M) 3 as much as 77 times or 82 percent of the total events," said Kustoro in a statement received in Kupang, Friday, May 6.

Meanwhile, based on depth, the epicenter of the earthquake was less than 60 km with 73 events and more than 60 km with 16 events.

Arief Tyastama said, Sumba Island is often rocked by earthquakes because it is located at the boundary of two tectonic plates, namely the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate.

Even on August 19, 1977, the southern part of Sumba Island was hit by a tsunami wave triggered by an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter Scale.

He said that with a fairly high intensity of earthquakes on Sumba Island, people are expected to continue to be vigilant, especially when a large earthquake occurs.

"The public needs to continue to be alert so that the impact of the earthquake can be minimized so that it does not cause casualties," he said, as reported by Antara.

He also appealed to the public to continue to follow the development of information from the BMKG as a reliable source so that they can make efforts to mitigate the impact of disasters properly. "Don't be influenced by earthquake information from unaccounted for sources, especially those circulating on social media," said Kustoro.