Weeks after a devastating magnitude 70 earthquake rattled Indonesia Lombok island on Sunday the tourist hotspot was struck by two strong quakes
LOMBOK, Indonesia – Weeks after a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake rattled Indonesia’s Lombok island, on Sunday, the tourist hotspot was struck by two strong quakes in a single day.
The two earthquakes hit the island in a matter of a few hours, adding to the woes of people on the island, after the 7.0 quake on August 5 killed 460 people and left thousands displaced as it levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses.
The first quake to hit the Indonesian island on Sunday was measured at magnitude 6.3 and was followed by a powerful magnitude 6.9 tremor a few hours later.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the magnitude 6.3 quake struck at a depth of 7.9 km.
The U. S. G. S. said that the quake was centered 6 km northeast of Sembalunlawaang and would have been felt to a moderate level throughout the island and lightly in the neighboring tourist island of Bali.
The quake was measured at a magnitude of 6.5 by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG).
Officials said that the third major quake in less than a month to rock the island triggered landslides and sent people fleeing into the streets.
Over the last month, Lombok has been struck by deadly tremors on July 29 and August 5 and numerous aftershocks.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho initially said, “The earthquake caused people to panic and flee their houses. There have been no reports of death or (serious) damage but people are traumatized.”
Further, the quake triggered landslides on the popular mountain hiking route on the slopes of the Mount Rinjani volcano – where trekkers were briefly trapped after the quake on July 29.
Since then, the park has been closed.
Meanwhile, residents in East Lombok reported feeling the tremors earlier on Sunday.
Later, authorities confirmed that one person was killed from a “violent shock” following the quake.
They added that about 100 homes near the town of Belanting were wrecked.
Further, several parts of the island and businesses in specific are said to have suffered due to power failure. which caused blackouts.
Meanwhile, a few hours later, the island was struck by a second quake, that was felt south of Belanting.
The U. S. G. S. said that the second quake struck about 5 kms south of the village of Belanting and was recorded at a relatively shallow depth of 20km.
No tsunami alert was immediately issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and there have been no early reports of damage or casualties.
Initially, the USGS reported a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck at a depth of 1km (0.62 miles), before downgrading its severity.
Fragile fault lines
Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago that straddles the geological disaster zone in the Pacific called the Ring of Fire, which has seismically active tectonic plates.
The series of fragile fault lines that form the Ring of Fire stretch 25,000 miles from New Zealand, across the east coast of Asia through Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, over to Alaska, Canada and the U. S. West Coast then down to the southern tip of South America.
Overall, the Ring of Fire contains 452 volcanoes and several tectonic plates in the earth’s crust and more than half of the world’s active volcanoes above sea level are part of the ring.
Indonesia sits atop this arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, which makes the country more prone to frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
The last massive quake to strike Indonesia, was a powerful 6.5 magnitude temblor which jolted the western Aceh province, off the north east coast of Sumatra island in December 2016.
The massive quake killed over 100 people dead, left scores injured and displaced more than 40,000 people.
Before that, in December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in over a dozen countries.
Economic toll
The Lombok island, which lies east of the slightly larger island of Bali has been struck by hundreds of earthquakes and aftershocks over the last 30 days.
Last week, Indonesian authorities revealed that following the August 5 earthquake, Lombok has suffered more than 5 trillion rupiah ($342 million) in damages.
Damages include impact to buildings, infrastructure and productivity.
Further, with the quakes leaving road badly damaged, relief agencies have largely suffered as they make efforts to distribute aid.
The Muslim-majority island is dubbed ‘The Island of a Thousand Mosques’ and along with Bali, boosts the country’s huge tourist sector – that has now taken a beating due to the multiple earthquakes.
Yet, reports noted that Lombok had been earmarked as one of Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s ’10 new Balis.’
Further, the regional government is hoping to develop it into a major destination, especially in the booming halal tourism sector.
