An earthquake has occurred with magnitude 7SR, 27 km northeast Lombok Utara, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, today evening (Aug 5). This earthquake rocked the popular Indonesia holiday island, sending people running from their homes and triggering a tsunami alert.
This quake even more powerful than the catastrophic tremor one week ago which left 17 people dead and hundreds injured. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported the islands had experienced more than 100 aftershocks in the four hours after last week’s quake and feared a further major tremor was imminent.
Furthermore, BMKG said a tsunami warning of the potential tidal wave has been issued for the quake and covers North Lombok, East and North Bali, the north side of East Java, Southeast Madura, South Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi.
Head of the Information and Public Relations Center of Indonesia National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB) Sutopo explained at this time his side was evacuating residents in the two regions and urging residents in the two locations to stay away from the beach.
Sutopo said, when an electric earthquake occurred in two parts of Lombok, electricity was extinguished. He estimates that aftershocks will still occur.
Earthquakes are common in Indonesia, which is situated on the "Ring of Fire" seismically active hotspot encircling the Pacific Ocean. In late 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in various nations around the Indian Ocean.