A strong 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck Flores Island in eastern Indonesia on Thursday, according to specialists at the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
The underground tremors were recorded on Thursday, August 20, at 10:46 a.m. local time, corresponding to 05:46 Moscow time. The focal depth of the earthquake was located 10 kilometres beneath the surface of the Earth. Seismologists at the centre classified the event as a strong earthquake capable of causing moderate destruction. No information regarding casualties or physical damage has been reported.
The epicentre was identified 32 kilometres north-east of Ruteng, a mountain town located in the western portion of Flores with a population of 34,500 residents. The seismic focus was also measured 81 kilometres north-east of Labuan Bajo, a coastal fishing town that is home to 188,000 people.
Flores is an island in the East Nusa Tenggara province of eastern Indonesia, positioned between the Flores Sea and the Sawu Sea. Labuan Bajo, located at the western extremity of the island, functions as a major transport hub and tourist destination, serving as the primary access point for Komodo National Park. Ruteng, situated higher in the central volcanic mountains, serves as an agricultural and administrative hub for the region.
Global seismological monitoring and recent quakes
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, founded in 1975 and based in France, operates as an international seismological reporting agency, synthesizing real-time earthquake data from observation networks around the world. Indonesia is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity caused by the collision of tectonic plates.
The earthquake in Indonesia follows a separate seismic event reported off the coast of the Kuril Islands. In that earlier event, underground tremors measuring 5.4 in magnitude were recorded at a depth of 40 kilometres. The epicentre of the Kuril Islands quake was located 130 kilometres south of Severo-Kurilsk, a town on Paramushir Island with a population of approximately 2,400 people.
