Earthquake M 4.7 Shook Yapen Papua, Felt up to Serui

Earthquake in Papua

Yapen – An earthquake measuring magnitude (M) 4.7 rocked Yapen Islands Regency, Papua. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that the earthquake was in the sea.

“The epicenter is in the sea 60 km southeast of the Yapen-Papua Islands,” wrote BMKG, via its official Twitter account @infoBMKG, Saturday (29/8/2020).

The earthquake occurred at 03.10 WIB. The coordinates of the earthquake are at 2.16 south latitude, 136.53 east longitude.

The earthquake has a depth of 10 km in the sea. The earthquake was felt on a scale II modified mercalli intensity (MMI) in Serui.

“Felt (MMI) II Serui,” said BMKG.

The MMI II scale means vibrations are felt by several people, light objects that are hanging sway. There have been no further reports of casualties or losses due to this earthquake in Papua.

Source: Detik News

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Short explanation from pacific ring of fire.

The Ring of Fire dominates the Pacific Ocean. It’s a string of at least 450 active and dormant volcanoes that form a semi-circle, or horse shoe, around the Philippine Sea plate, the Pacific Plate, Juan de Fuca and Cocos plates, and the Nazca Plate. There is a lot of seismic activity in the area.

About 90 percent of all earthquakes strike within the Ring of Fire. This means people’s lives are under almost constant threat in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and other island nations like the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and many more in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, all the way east to the western seaboard of the North and South Americas. Although levels of threat differ depending on local factors like your proximity to the quake’s epicenter, whether it’s out to sea or on land – and standards of housing.

As we can see the picture, Papua and West Papua provinces are part of the region that is under constant tension. When a quake strikes, that tension is temporarily relieved, but it soon starts to build again. So all that is left for the people who live around the Ring of Fire is to be aware of the danger, perhaps to live further inland, build safer, earthquake resistant housing, and for nations everywhere to improve oceanic and land-based early-warning systems to help minimise the risk to life.

Notes

A former Dutch colony, West Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after an undisputed vote of about 1,025 representative tribal leaders. The result of the plebiscite was overseen and endorsed by the United Nations.