An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck Indonesia’s West Java province on Saturday night, sending tremors across the region. The quake, with its epicenter located 151 kilometers southwest of Garut Regency at a depth of 10 kilometers, was felt in the capital, Jakarta, and several other provinces, including Banten, Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java. In West Java, the intensity of the quake was felt at IV Modified Mercally Intensity (MMI) in the towns of Sukabumi and Tasikmalaya, and III to IV MMI in Bandung, the provincial capital.
The Indonesian meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency reported that the earthquake occurred at 23:29 Jakarta time (1629 GMT) and did not trigger any tsunami alerts. The tremors did not cause any significant damage or casualties, but they serve as a reminder of Indonesia’s vulnerability to seismic activity.
Indonesia, an archipelagic nation located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, is prone to earthquakes and other seismic activity. The Pacific Ring of Fire is a horseshoe-shaped region around the Pacific Ocean that is home to a large number of active volcanoes and earthquake zones. Indonesia’s location on this seismically active zone means that it is frequently subject to earthquakes and other natural disasters, such as tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
