The recent series of earthquakes has raised questions on whether there is an increase in seismic activity in the country and whether it would continue in the months ahead.
5.0-magnitude earthquake hit on Aug. 12 Jembrana regency in Bali. The earthquake was not so powerful, but it was only one of the many earthquakes that occurred in the past few months across the archipelago.
There were also earthquakes with bigger magnitudes that occurred in the country, such as the 6.9-magnitude earthquake on the southern coast of Banten on Aug. 2 that killed four people.
In the eastern part of Indonesia there was also the 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck the Banda Sea, Maluku, and the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Central Memberamo regency in Papua on the same day on June 24.
The recent series of earthquakes has raised questions on whether there is an increase in seismic activity in the country and whether it would continue in the months ahead.
The head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency's (BMKG) earthquake information and early tsunami warning division, Daryono, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that there was indeed a significant increase in earthquake activity across the country since 2013.
BMKG data recorded the number of earthquakes in the country had increased from 4,234 in 2013 to 5,299 in 2015 and doubled to 11,920 earthquakes in 2018. It was the largest number of earthquakes ever recorded by the BMKG since 2008.
Although it showed a less significant rise, the earthquakes that measured larger than 5.0-magnitude also showed an increase. The BMKG recorded that there were 181 earthquakes larger than 5.0-magnitude in 2016. The number increased to 222 in 2017 and 312 in 2018. However, in recent years more powerful earthquakes have occurred more frequently, around 585 times in 2008 and 645 times in 2009.
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