REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NORTH LOMBOK -- Another major quake 6.2 on the Richter Scale hit Lombok again at 13.25 local time with epicenter in the sea 6 kilometer northwest of North Lombok at a dept of 12 kilometers, the Meteorology office (BMKG) said. It happened when workers were still busy looking for dead bodies below the rubble of building that collapsed in Sunday's quake 7 on the Richter Scale.
The BMKG said the jolt was an aftershock of the quake on Sunday (Aug 5) and it would not cause tsunami. The big aftershock caused panic among the people still in trauma after the two big quakes earlier on July 29 and August 5 that left more than a hundred of people dead on the tourist island.
The quake on July 29 left 16 people killed and the one on Aug 5 the quake left at least 1347 people dead on the island. All the victims were local people although many foreign tourists were in Lombok when the quake hit on Aug 5.
BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawati explained the earthquake in Lombok was a 200 year cycle from Flores fault. She believed the strongest energy has been released.
Dwikorita revealed the strongest earthquake points were in North Lombok and East Lombok, then another one appeared in Mataram. According to her, Lombok Island is an adjacent to broken earth rocks and is referred to as Flores Fault.
It stretched from Bali to the north of Flores Sea. When it broke, it would bring up a very large energy. The biggest fault appeared 200 years ago and it reoccured lately.
The energy came out gradually and with twice the energy release, it has a damaging effect on Lombok. Power of energy will continue to be felt after the peak point, which is commonly said aftershocks.
Based on BMKG data, the biggest energy point was released on August 5, which caused vibration up to 7.0 magnitude. After the major earthquake, aftershocks usually occured.
Dwikorita said, the peak point of the earthquake vibration and the potential of the tsunami had already passed. Therefore, what appears is only the vibration of aftershocks which are getting smaller. BMKG noted there where 344 aftershocks occurred in Lombok until Thursday (Aug 9) morning.
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