Indonesia: Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes near Pariaman

An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck West Sumatra near Pariaman, Indonesia on Monday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake was at a depth of 11.9 km (7.39 miles), USGS said.

An undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.6 had struck Indonesia on December 14, 2021, and the country’s meteorological department had issued a tsunami warning. Indonesian authorities had estimated the quake at magnitude 7.5, which struck its region of East Nusa Tenggara in the Flores Sea.

The country had also felt tremors of a 7.4 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, triggering a tsunami and affecting around 1.5 million people on the island of Sulawesi on September 28, 2018. The catastrophe had killed over 2000 people and left around 2 lakh displaced, according to Unicef.

A devastating 9.1-magnitude tremor struck off the coast of Sumatra in 2004 and subsequently triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia. It is still widely regarded as one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

Indonesia experiences frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.