TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Government to install more tools to gauge earthquakes in Kalimantan
The Indonesian part of Borneo currently has 12 seismographs installed along its eastern coast from South to North Kalimantan provinces. Five additional ones will be donated by the German and Japanese governments.
Change Size
Seismological device for measuring earthquakes (Shutterstock/Belish)
T
he government is planning to install five more seismographs in Kalimantan, according to the head of the Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Balikpapan office, Mugianto.
The Indonesian part of Borneo currently has 12 seismographs installed along its eastern coast from South to North Kalimantan provinces. The five additional ones are being donated by the German and Japanese governments.
The data recorded by the seismographs, according to Mugianto, would be directly sent to the BMKG.
If a damaging earthquake and potential tsunami or tidal wave is detected, the result of the analysis would be conveyed to the BMKG’s Control and Operation Center (Pusdalop), the military (TNI), and the National Police.
“It is expected that local administrations and residents can respond sooner when a disaster occurs,” Mugianto said.
The eastern part of Kalimantan, he said, was prone to earthquakes and tsunamis as a result of an active fault that runs across Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat karst in East Kutai to Semporna in Sabah to the north of Tarakan Island.
The BMKG has recorded a number of earthquakes in the region over the last two years, including the 7.3-magnitude quake in the Makassar Strait near Palu that devastated Central Sulawesi in September.
Others included the 4.5-magnitude earthquake in May 2018 and the 3.8-magnitude quake in March 2018. (swa)
