Earthquake jolts W. Java, damages several homes

Earthquake jolts W. Java, damages several homes

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale shook parts of
West Java province on Friday morning, leaving several houses
damaged and throwing hundreds of thousands of people into a
panic, officials said.

The quake occurred at 7:19 a.m. with an epicenter located
about 20 kilometers northeast of Bandung around the resort area
of Ciater.

Shockwaves from the quake were felt strongly in the
subdistrict of Lembang, near the West Java capital of Bandung,
and in the area of Tangkuban Perahu.

Residents in Cibodas, Parongpong, Ujungberung and several
eastern parts of Bandung also felt the tremor.

The quake prompted people in the affected areas to run out of
their swaying houses in a panic. No injuries or casualties were reported.

Surono, a senior official at the Geology Disaster Litigation
Directorate in Bandung, said at least three houses in the hamlet
of Pasir, Itis village, Lembang, were slightly damaged.

The tremor also left cracks in dozens of other houses in
Parongpong village, Lembang, he said.

It also shook other houses and buildings in northern parts of
Bandung, including a house belonging to a former official at the
local meteorology agency, Bambang Hidayat.

"Little cracks appeared in the walls of my home. The tremor
also caused books to fall from a bookshelf. One of the windows in
my house was damaged slightly, too," he said.

Several portions of a wall of a crater in Mount Tangkuban
Perahu collapsed, said officials.

The Bandung Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), which
received reports from local residents, said the earthquake was
felt in residential areas along Jl. Cagak Subang and Jl.
Ujungberung in Lembang.

Head of the Bandung Meteorology and Geophysics Agency Taufik
Rivai said the tremor was a tectonic quake stemming from
activities at the Lembang-Baribis fracture.

Surono said the Lembang-Baribis fracture rarely showed any
activity, so it was highly unlikely that the quake would be
followed by an aftershock.

"Because such activities are rare, we have difficulties
gathering data on the sequence of earthquakes from this
fracture," Surono said.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country, is prone
to seismic upheavals because of its location on the Pacific "Ring
of Fire", where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.