There Is An Increase In Earthquake Activity In January 2021

BMKG records related to earthquakes during January 2021 (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded a significant increase in earthquake activity, the shock of which was felt by the public in January 2021.

"During the period 1 to 20 January 2021, BMKG has recorded 52 earthquakes felt," said BMKG Coordinator for Earthquake and Tsunami Mitigation Daryono in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Wednesday, January 20.

According to Daryono, this number is classified as high, if analyzed from January 1 to January 20, 2021, an earthquake was felt almost every day, except on January 10 and January 17, where the community felt no earthquakes.

Even in a day, namely on January 14, 2021, there was an earthquake in Indonesia where the community felt the shock eight times.

"Of course this is unusual, because within 20 days the earthquake activity was felt more than 50 times," he said.

When compared with data on earthquake activity in January 2020, it was recorded as much as 54 times, this number is almost equivalent to earthquake activity for 20 days in January 2021.

Daryono said that the cause of the phenomenon of increasing earthquake activity is not yet known, but what is certain is that an earthquake is a process of releasing energy that occurs suddenly at the source of the earthquake after experiencing stress field accumulation that has been going on for a long time.

Symptoms of increased seismic activity at certain times are still difficult to explain. There are suspicions that changes in global, regional, and even local tension patterns seem to explain this phenomenon, he said.

"However, the concentration of earthquake activity in a certain area and at a certain time can now be done easily. However, the most important thing is how to recognize and distinguish the various kinds of earthquake events that have occurred," he said.

This is important to do for the sake of assessing the hazards and risk of earthquakes for mitigation purposes in order to minimize the impact of physical damage to buildings and infrastructure and to avoid unnecessary human casualties, he added.