Tuesday 22 November 2022

Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake in West Java kills at least 162 people

The Baden Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika recorded a Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km in the Cianjur Districs of West Java Province, Indonesia, slightly after 1.20 pm local time (slightly after 6.20 am GMT) on Monday 21 November 2022. The event triggered a series of landslides, as well as causing a large number of building collapses, and is now known to have killed at least 162 people. 

The approximate location of the 21 November 2022 West Java Earthquake. United States Geological Survey.

Many of those who have died are reported to have been children, with at least one school having been severely damaged by the Earthquake, which struck with very little warning. Many homes have also been destroyed and damaged, a hospital in Cianjur District damaged. Much of the area has been left without power, and many roads have been damaged, making communication with more remote areas very difficult. Nurses from the Indonesian Red Cross are reported to be trying to reach several remote villages on motorbikes.

Damage to a school in the Cianjur District of West Java, Indonesia, following an Earthquake on 21 November 2022. ABC News.

The Indo-Australian Plate, which underlies the Indian Ocean to the south of Java, Bali and Lombok, is being subducted beneath the Sunda Plate, a breakaway part of the Eurasian Plate which underlies the islands and neighbouring Sumatra, along the Sunda Trench, passing under the islands, where friction between the two plates can cause Earthquakes. As the Indo-Australian Plate sinks further into the Earth it is partially melted and some of the melted material rises through the overlying Sunda Plate as magma, fuelling the volcanoes of Java and neighbouring islands.

Subduction along the Sunda Trench beneath Java, Bali and Lombok. Earth Observatory of Singapore.

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