A week after the minor earthquake that rocked Bali around midnight, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that was centered in neighboring Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) occurred earlier this morning with tremors felt by residents on the Island of Gods.
Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) confirmed this morning that the quake’s epicenter was 163 kilometers northeast of North Lombok, hitting at a depth of 525 kilometers at 3:55am.
BMKG initially reported that the quake’s center was at Tanah Bumbu, South Kalimantan, but later revised their report to show that the center was in Lombok instead.
BMKG Head Daryono told reporters that the Tanah Bumbu warning was based from initial reports – which was two minutes and 20 seconds after the earthquake. The data was not final but his department decided to release the information first as a warning before revising it later.
“BMKG is an institution for early tsunami warnings. Must fast,” he said.
Local news outlets reported that the Lombok residents were panicked due to the tremors, which was understandable considering the 2018 earthquake in the area that killed 563 people.
In Bali, the earthquake reportedly was significant enough that it got residents out of bed.
A reader of Coconuts Bali who is staying in Batu Belig villa stated that she saw water splashing out of the swimming pool due to the earthquake.
Adelaide resident Craigh Watchman, 46, who is staying in Ubud, said that the earthquake woke him as his bed was rocking.
“It lasted a while up here. I’m good [but I’ve] never been in such a big [earthquake] before. A bit scary,” he said.
Reports say that the tremors were also felt in Blitar, East Java, and Bantul.
