BMKG: Earthquakes In Central Java During 2024 Dominated By Shallow Earthquakes

Illustration of the impact of the earthquake. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Head of Banjarnegara Geophysics Station Hery Susanto Wibowo said the earthquake in Central Java (Central Java) during 2024 based on data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) was dominated by shallow earthquakes.

"The Central Java region is one of the provinces prone to earthquake disasters, especially in Central Java there are active faults or faults that have the potential to cause land earthquakes that can cause severe damage," he said in Banjarnegara, Thursday, January 2, as reported by Antara.

In addition, he said, the Central Java region also faced face-to-face with the megathrust zone on the southern coast of Java Island which could trigger a large earthquake.

BMKG Banjarnegara Geophysics Station recorded as many as 693 earthquakes in Central Java in the period January 1 to December 31, 2024. "A total of 11 of them were earthquakes that were felt," he said.

He said that based on the results of monitoring during 2024, the most earthquakes occurred in February 2024, reaching 77 incidents.

Meanwhile, the most earthquakes felt, he said, occurred in July 2024 as many as five incidents.

"The five earthquakes are a series of earthquakes in Batang on July 7, 2024 with a magnitude of 4.4 with a depth of 6 kilometers centered at 5 kilometers northeast of Batang," he said.

He said the earthquake was felt in Batang and Pekalongan on a scale III Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) and was felt in Kendal on a scale II MMI.

According to him, the Batang earthquake caused some damage, including three heavily damaged houses, six moderately damaged houses, 10 lightly damaged houses, and damage to public facilities such as one mosque unit, three schools, five government offices, and one market unit.

"When viewed from its magnitude, earthquakes in Central Java were dominated by earthquakes with a magnitude of less than 3.0 (M<3.0) which recorded 606 earthquakes," he said.

According to him, the largest earthquake magnitude in 2024 was recorded at M 4.9 on April 22, 2024, centered 77 kilometers southeast of Cilacap with a depth of 39 kilometers.

He said that in terms of depth, 500 earthquakes with shallow depths were recorded, 191 earthquakes with medium depth, and two earthquakes with deep depth.

"From this data, it can be seen that in 2024 earthquakes in Central Java are dominated by shallow earthquakes," said Hery.