Berita

BANDUNG –Head of the Center for Vulcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, the Geological Agency of the Ministry of EMR, Surono, said that the earthquake that shook southwest Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on Thursday, 4th October 2011 at 08:27:59 pm Central Indonesia Time (CIT) was the result of the association of active fault located at the bottom of Sawu Sea that tend to direct toward northwest-southeast.

“Information from BMKG states that the hypocenter is located at coordinates 10.22° South Latitude and 122.92° ST, the magnitude is 5.0 at Richter-scale, at 19 km below the earth surface, at a distance of 73 km southwest of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Based on this (BMKG) information, it is estimated that the earthquake associates with the active fault located at the bottom of Sawu Sea that tends to direct toward northwest-southeast,” said Surono.

The earthquake shock can be felt at areas located near the epicenter, especially those at the west coastal region of Timor Island. These areas are mostly composed of alluvial deposit, quarterly sediment deposit and tertiary volcanogenic deposit. “At the areas where alluvial and quarterly deposit was decomposed, the shock is predicted to be stronger because such rocks have the nature to be free, loose, untied and will intensify the shock effect, therefore, very prone to earthquake shock,” he added.

In addition, he said that until the statement is made, there is no report about casualties and building damages caused by the earthquake.

Surono requests communities to stay calm as well as to follow the direction and information from the local government, to be unprovoked by irresponsible issues about earthquakes and tsunami. Aftershock quakes are estimated to occur with smaller power than the main earthquake; therefore, people are expected to be cautious.

“The earthquake will not cause tsunami, because although the earthquake occurred at the sea, the energy is not enough to trigger a tsunami” he added. (IY)