de que habrian terremotos
Indonesian Quake, Tsunami Toll Exceeds 100 on Java (Update1)
July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the southern coast of Java in Indonesia and the tsunami that followed exceeds 100 people, local police said.
The government declared a state of emergency for a month in the affected areas, Vice President Jusuf Kalla in a live interview with ElShinta news radio, which said the death was more than 140. There were at least 105 dead, 137 missing and 148 injured, Phil Vine, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said by phone.
``We don't have the exact figures yet and we don't know how many are missing,'' Endi Budiarto, a West Java police spokesman, said by telephone. ``We are focusing our efforts on finding the dead and rescuing those who are still alive. About 400 policemen and women are involved in the rescue efforts.''
The quake, the world's biggest since a 7.9 magnitude quake struck Tonga in May, hit at 3:19 p.m. yesterday beneath the seabed about half way between Christmas Island and the south coast of Java. It's the third tsunami to cause deaths in Indonesia since December 2004 when more than 220,000 were killed as giant waves swept across the Indian Ocean.
Aftershocks continued in the south Java region with a quake of magnitude 5.7 was registered at 7:15 a.m. today, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
There were 17 aftershocks through to the 7:15 a.m. tremor, of which 16 were of more than 5 magnitude, the Web site shows. Earthquakes exceeding 5 may cause damage and loss of life in populated areas depending on their depth.
Fault Lines
Three of the aftershocks were magnitude 6, classified as ``strong'' by USGS, and higher. The initial shock was classified as a ``major'' earthquake.
Java is the world's most populated island with more than 180 million of Indonesia's 238 million people living there.
The archipelago sits on one arc of what is called the Pacific Rim of Fire, marked by hundreds of seismic fault lines along the earth's tectonic plates. The south coast of Java lies in a zone where the Eurasian Plate meets the Indo-Australian Plate.
Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency, rated yesterday's earthquake at 6.8 in magnitude, and the 7:15 a.m. aftershock today at 5.8.
``We have been seeing the leftover energy being exerted,'' Said Budi Waluyo, the department head for earthquake early information at the agency. ``It happens in big earthquakes, and it's normal. More aftershocks are still possible.''
Death Toll
Of the dead from yesterday's disaster, more than 75 people were from Ciamis district alone, District Secretary Subur Dwiyono said today by telephone.
Most of them died in the tsunami that struck six sub- districts in the area, displacing an estimated 30,500 people, he said. Ciamis has 90 kilometers of coast. The Red Cross's Vine said about 2,875 people were displaced.
The earthquake, felt in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, 360 kilometers away from the epicenter, was followed within 15 minutes by a warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for Indonesia and Australia. It later revised the alert to say it didn't expect a more widespread tsunami to result from the quake.
More than 220,000 people died in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand and eight other Indian Ocean countries that were struck on Dec. 26 2004 by a tsunami caused by a 9.1- magnitude earthquake near the island of Sumatra.
In June, more than 200 people died in floods and landslides on the island of Sulawesi. An earthquake on May 27, the worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami, killed more than 5,700 people. Areas around Mount Merapi in central Java were also evacuated earlier this year amid concerns the volcano would erupt before the alert status was lowered on July 12.
At 3:48 a.m. this morning, an earthquake measuring 5.4 struck 43.5 kilometers beneath the seabed in Minahasa, North Sulawesi province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. The epicenter was 1,590 kilometers from Jakarta. There was no danger of a tsunami.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Leony Aurora in Jakarta laurora@bloomberg.net;
Claire Leow in Jakarta at cleow@bloomberg.net.
Comments