500 Earthquakes to Occur Monthly in 2018, BNPB Predicts
23 December 2017 10:06 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) explained that on an average of 500 earthquakes will occur every month throughout 2018.
Since the accurate time of earthquakes cannot be predicted, BNPB reminded people in Eastern Indonesia to remain alert for the earthquakes as such an area has complex seismicity and geology with higher susceptibility.
Read: 668 Homes Damaged by West Java Earthquakes
“We cannot predict the time, place and magnitude of potential earthquakes, both from the source of subduction which is the convergence of tectonic plates and from the fault lines,” BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in Jakarta on Thursday, December 21.
Geographically, Sutopo went on, Indonesia is situated on the Ring of Fire spreading across the Pacific plate which is the most active tectonic plate in the world. This Zone contributes to almost 90 percent of the earthquakes in the world and almost all of them are massive earthquakes.
SATRIA DEWI ANJASWARI
