A 5.4 earthquake that rattled South Bali and East Java on Thursday morning was not caused by the same plate activity as the earthquakes that have been shaking Lombok, says Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
There haven’t been any reports of injuries or damage in Bali from the 5.4 quake and “community activities” are running normally, BNPB spokesman Purwo Sutopo Nugroho stated on Thursday following the earthquake.
“The source of the earthquake is from the Indo-Australian plate (meeting with) the Eurasian plate in southern Bali. This earthquake was not related to the earthquakes that are occurring in Lombok,” Nugroho said.
The 5.4 earthquake on Thursday hit 103 kilometers south of Denpasar in the sea at a depth of about 10 kilometers at 6:48am, with a duration of about three seconds, according to readings picked up[ by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
The quake did not trigger a tsunami warning.
Lombok has been hit by a number of earthquakes and over a thousand aftershocks in the past few weeks with two big major events: a 7.0 striking on Aug. 5 and a 6.9 on Aug. 19. Both of these events are understood to be caused by the same source, the Flores Back Arc Thrust.
While the death toll varies, depending on who you ask, BNPB put it at at least 515 people as of Tuesday.
Around 431,416 people have been forced to evacuate, based on BNPB’s latest tally.
Just before a 6.4 quake took 17 lives on July 29.
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