Indonesia's 7.7 Quake Triggers Tsunami Warning for 4 Provinces as 1.5 Million Face Strong Shaking
Updated
Updated · Fox Weather · Aug 14
Indonesia's 7.7 Quake Triggers Tsunami Warning for 4 Provinces as 1.5 Million Face Strong Shaking
3 articles · Updated · Fox Weather · Aug 14
Summary
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off East Nusa Tenggara at 4:58 a.m. local time, prompting Indonesia to issue a tsunami warning for parts of West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.
USGS said the quake hit 68 kilometers north-northwest of Ende at a depth of 10 kilometers, exposing about 1.5 million people to strong to severe shaking with localized casualties and damage possible.
At least seven aftershocks followed within the next hour, including magnitudes 5.9, 5.6, 6.1 and 5.5, while USGS modeling flagged significant landslide risk in the affected region.
The quake resulted from shallow reverse faulting where the Australia and Sunda plates converge, a highly active stretch of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Since 1950, the area has recorded 37 quakes of magnitude 6 or higher; a 7.8 quake just 63 kilometers away in 1992 triggered a tsunami and caused at least 2,500 deaths.