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July 2006 Java earthquake

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Natural Disasters

    July 2006 Java earthquake
   Date               17 July 2006
   Magnitude          7.7 M[w]
   Countries affected Indonesia
   Casualties         At Least 659
   Map showing location of epicentre
   Enlarge
   Map showing location of epicentre

   The July 2006 Java earthquake was a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the
   coast of Java, Indonesia. It occurred on July 17, 2006, at 08:24 UTC
   (15:24 local time).

   The U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicentre of the quake at
   9.295° S 107.347° E, and its hypocentre at a depth of 48.6  km below
   the seabed. This is 225 km (140  miles) NE of Christmas Island, 240 km
   (150 miles) SSW of Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, and 358 km (222 miles) S of
   Jakarta, the capital and largest city of Indonesia.

Estimated casualties

   The Ministry of Health (MOH) reports that approximately 668 people
   died, 65 are missing and 9299 are in-treatment because of the disaster.
   .

   At least three non-Indonesian nationals are among the dead, including
   travellers from the Netherlands, Pakistan and Sweden . The Swedish
   foreign ministry reported that two Swedish children from a family on
   holiday in the region were missing the first day; they were later found
   at safe ground higher up in the community.

                         Deaths       Injured Missing Displaced
                   Confirmed Estimated
             Total 547       550      595     275     54,256

Aftershocks

   The USGS recorded at least 22 aftershocks south of Java ranging between
   magnitude 4.6 and 6.1. The two largest aftershocks measured 6.0 and 6.1
   M[w].

Tsunami

   The earthquake caused a three- meter-high tsunami which destroyed
   houses on the south coast of Java, killing at least 668 people and
   leaving at least 65 missing.

   The tsunami smashed into a 110-mile stretch of Java’s coastline that
   was unaffected by the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Waves more
   than 6 feet high reached 200 yards inland in some places, destroying
   scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats
   were left mangled amid fishing nets, furniture and other debris.

   The tsunami struck the southern Indonesian coastal villages of
   Cipatujah and Pangandaran on the coast southeast of Bandung and Garut.
   There is reportedly extensive damage at the West Java beach resort of
   Pangandaran. Thousands of people at the resort fled to higher ground.

Localised tsunami

   Following the earthquake, the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics
   Agency stated that “There is the possibility of a local tsunami that
   could affect coasts located usually no more than 100 kilometres from
   the earthquake epicentre”, indicating the improbability of a
   large-scale tsunami, like the one that struck the same region on
   December 26, 2004. Despite this, India still issued a tsunami warning
   for the Andaman Islands archipelago region, which is located in the Bay
   of Bengal. This archipelago suffered severe damage in the December 26,
   2004 tsunami. A warning was also issued for Christmas Island, however
   police reports from the island say that no damage was caused. A mere
   60 cm tsunami was recorded at the Bureau of Meteorology’s tide gauge on
   the island. A warning was also issued for the Kimberley region of
   Western Australia.

Warning

   The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii issued a Tsunami bulletin
   12 minutes after the earthquake alerting Indonesia (Java) and Australia
   (Christmas Island) to a possible local tsunami affecting coasts within
   a 100 km radius from the quake epicentre. The bulletin gave an
   estimated tsunami impact time for Indonesia of 09:00 UTC, an advanced
   warning of 24 minutes. It suggested that based on historical data, the
   risk of a destructive widespread tsunami was non-existent. The second
   bulletin issued two and a half hours later confirmed the occurrence of
   local tsunami by the news media and the reiteration that a more
   widespread tsunami was non-existent.
     * First Tsunami bulletin issued by PTWC at 08:36 UTC
     * Second and final bulletin issued by PTWC at 11:08 UTC

   Kusmayanto Kadiman, the State Minister for Research and Technology
   confirmed that Indonesian officials had received bulletins from both
   the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii and the Japan
   Meteorological Agency twenty minutes before the first tsunami wave
   struck. However, Kadiman indicated that the government did not
   publicize the bulletins because they did not want to cause unnecessary
   alarm. According to an AP report, he had stated the bulletins were
   received 45 minutes before the tsunami hit. He later stated that
   warnings were issued seven minutes before incident via text messaging
   but that it was not enough time to alert local communities.

   Edi Prihantoro, an official at Indonesia’s Ministry of Research and
   Technology that oversees a national warning project, said the southern
   Java area had no system to warn people of coming waves.

   As part of a five-year project to install tsunami buoys around the
   archipelago, Indonesia deployed two such devices off the island of
   Sumatra last year. However, when asked how many of the deployed devices
   were operational, Prihantoro replied: “None.” He continued, “We need at
   least 22 buoys to cover all of Indonesia. We have received two from
   Germany and they were deployed months ago. However, both of them are
   damaged now.” Both devices have since been decommissioned and one of
   them is awaiting repairs.

Evacuation

   At least 23,000 people did eventually evacuate the coast, either afraid
   that more tsunami were coming or because their homes had been
   destroyed.

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