Slightly damaging earthquake in Papua (former Irian Jaya), Indonesia
Last update: April 21, 2012 at 11:57 am by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell
Earthquake overview : A very shallow earthquake 10 km out of the Irian Jaya coast, Indonesia has scared people who are not panicking for a little shaking, as earthquakes are almost common as bad weather in this area of the world.
Green radius = strong shaking; yellow radius = very strong shaking, severe shaking too small to fit on this mapMost important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : Mw6.6
UTC Time : Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 01:16:52 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 10:16:52 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 16 km (9.9 miles)
Geo-location(s) :
10 km SE from Ransiki, Papua, Indonesia
83 km (51 miles) SSE of Manokwari, Papua, Indonesia
– Update 11:23 UTC: It has been reported that the quake caused a bridge connecting the Ransiki-Manokwari to have minor damage. A total of 10 houses damaged moderately, and dozens of others were slightly damaged.
– Update 11:03 UTC
* As usual the local media are always focusing more on the bigger cities in the area, in this case Manokwari. In Manokwari people are saying that the strong shaking only lasted 3 seconds. People rushed out of the buildings. There was no news of any damage or injuries at Manokwari.
– The biggest city in the area is Manokwari who has experienced a strong MMI VI shaking. Manokwari has a population of 53,000 people.
– The fault who generated the earthquake is called “Ransiki fault”. Both sides of the fault are moving approx. 8.5 mm/year.
– Local BMKG is reporting a Magnitude of 6.8 at a depth of 10 km (bot stronger than reported by USGS)
– Modified Mercalli Shaking Intensities : 4,000 people : Severe VIII shaking, 8,000 people : Very strong VII shaking and 169,000 people VI strong shaking.
– GDACS has calculated that the following locations might get waves of max. 0.2 meter (not a real tsunami but only strong current and waves) : Rapaowi, Ransiki, Jali Ali, Sisember and Robookisbia
– 160,000 people are living within a radius of 100 km. The repartition of the population is as follows :
75 km 29000 people; 50 km 16000 people; 20 km 5200 people and 10 km less than 1000 people
Earthquake-report.com calls an area of 25 km at risk (about 7000 people – number based on GDACS data) for serious damage and injuries.
Ransiki town / village – only approx. 10 km from the epicenter – image courtesy Toto Purwanto– Oransbari and Ransiki are 2 villages located in a radius of 25 km around the epicenter. Especially this area will get the greatest shaking impact. Based on satellite images, Ransiki seems to have a STOL airport (short take off and landing)
– The earthquake is somewhat weakened because of an epicenter just out in the sea
– Due to the Magnitude and the close distance to the beach, NOAA has published the following Tsunami statement for the Pacific region :
NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER
EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION