Indonesia issued a local tsunami warning on Saturday after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck beneath the sea near Flores Island. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi, urging residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks, the Associated Press reported.
The agency said the shallow undersea earthquake struck near Flores Island and advised people in vulnerable coastal areas to move to higher ground while authorities monitored tide gauges for signs of tsunami activity.
The warning came after the earthquake was followed by three strong aftershocks, measuring 5.9, 5.6 and 6.1 in magnitude, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Authorities in Australia, located across the Timor Sea, said there was no tsunami threat to the country at the time, CNN reported.
The earthquake was strong enough to expose a large population to potentially dangerous shaking. The USGS PAGER system estimated that around 500,000 people experienced very strong or severe shaking, which can cause slight to moderate damage to well-built structures and extensive damage to poorly constructed buildings.
Indonesia, with more than 17,000 islands is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a vast zone of tectonic activity marked by numerous faults and volcanoes.
The country has experienced some of the world's deadliest earthquake-related disasters in recent decades.
The most devastating occurred on December 26, 2004, when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. The resulting Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 220,000 people across countries bordering the ocean, with more than half of the victims in Indonesia.
Indonesia's eastern islands have also repeatedly been struck by destructive earthquakes and tsunamis.
In December 1992, a magnitude 7 earthquake generated a tsunami that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, the same island near the latest earthquake.
In August 2018, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the island of Lombok, killing hundreds. Later that month, a series of powerful earthquakes struck several islands in the South Pacific and Indonesia.
Then, in September 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Sulawesi, triggering a tsunami that killed hundreds more.
More recently, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Cianjur region of West Java in November 2022, killing hundreds of people.
