Earthquake Shakes Southern Java, Indonesia
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck the southern part of Indonesia's main island of Java on Saturday. The epicenter was located 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Banjar city at a depth of 68.3 kilometers (42.4 miles).
While there were no immediate reports of injuries or significant property damage, the earthquake was widely felt across the region. High-rise buildings in the capital Jakarta swayed for around a minute, and homes shook strongly in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung and in Jakarta's satellite cities. The tremor was also felt in other cities in West Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java province.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency warned of possible aftershocks and advised residents to remain vigilant.
Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is located on major geological faults known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, making it prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In 2022, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in West Java's Cianjur city killed at least 602 people. It was the deadliest earthquake in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.
The country also experienced a devastating tsunami in 2004, triggered by an extremely powerful Indian Ocean earthquake. The tsunami killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.