Another earthquake shakes the capital

Another earthquake shakes the capital

JAKARTA (JP): An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale
hit the capital on Friday morning.

No damages or fatalities were reported.

Many Jakartans were unaware of the jolt, which according to
the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) lasted for about 10
seconds at 9:17 a.m.

The light shock was felt mainly by those working or residing
in tall buildings.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale
rocked the city on Wednesday last week. It destroyed dozens of
houses in Bogor and Sukabumi, the epicenter of the earthquake.

"Although the (Friday's) earthquake had a stronger magnitude
than the last one, the impact was much less because its epicenter
was in the ocean," BMG head Sri Diharto told Elshinta radio
station.

Sri added that the epicenter of the tectonic quake was
somewhere in the Sunda Strait, some 200 kilometers west of
Jakarta.

Sri said he also had no idea about the earthquake until a
reporter from a Japan-based media called him for confirmation
about the quake.

"I was in my office, which is a one-story building. Based on
the call, we then rushed to the BMG (recording) office and found
out that there had been an earthquake," he said.

Bambang Trimulyo, an employee at the 20-story Antara building
in Central Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post: "I was standing on the
top floor (of my office) looking out a window when I noticed my
door moving back and forth and creaking."

A research executive at PT Insightindo Arya Dharma Elvina
Afny, who was on the 12th floor of the 17-story Wisma Nugra
Santana building on Jl. Sudirman, said she was working in front
of her computer when the quake hit.

"I felt the quake but I ignored it," Elvina told the Post.

A researcher at the BMG Jakarta office, Fauzi, said the quake
was caused by an accumulation of energy caused by a shift of two
tectonic plates, which meet under the Indian Ocean near the
southern part of Java.

Fauzi said due to the close distance between the capital and
the epicenter of the previous earthquake, it was possible that
the capital would be the epicenter of an earthquake of low
magnitude.

"If it does occur, it will be only at about one on the Richter
scale," Fauzi told the Post.

However, Fauzi said that it would be difficult to give any
forewarning.

"It is very difficult to predict when an earthquake will
occur," Fauzi said.

In Bandung, chief of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)
earthquake laboratory Nanang I. Puspito warned that strong quakes
could occur.(08/25/edt)