Just a week after the little earthquake
that disturbed Mindanao on a Monday evening, and not even long after the Sunday
tremor that struck the Moluccas islands of Indonesia, the country was once
again rocked by a seismological disturbance just a short distance away from its
busiest tourist destination. According to ABS-CBN
News, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) the undersea
quake was registered at magnitude 6.1 early on Tuesday, July 16, due south of
Bali. The internationally famous resort island was rocked by the vibrations,
along with the neighboring areas of Lombok and East Java.
While there have been no reported
casualties in the brief quake, the shaking did inflict some property and
monumental damage to homes at Banyuwangi, East Java and historic temple sites
at Bali. These were confirmed by photos shared by the Indonesian national
disaster agency which were shared on social media. Fortunately, as the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii has determined, the sea earthquake – which occurred
100 km down and 102 km southwest away from Denpasar in Bali - was not strong
enough to cause a tsunami, something that Indonesians must be relieved to know,
considering how past tsunamis have easily devastated some of their seaside
communities and cost lives.
The tremor shook hotel buildings
in Bali and in some cases caused evacuations to be done. But all in all it was
much less harrowing than the magnitude 7.2 quake last July 14 in the Moluccas.
At least two people were killed by collapsing structures, and a further 2,000
residents of the islands were forced to transfer to temporary shelters. As with
the earthquake this Tuesday, the seismic disturbance did not trigger any tsunamis,
although it did spur other Indonesians in the Moluccas to move to higher ground
since Sunday. These episodes are but the norm for Indonesia and the
Philippines, two countries located in the Pacific Ring of Fire.
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