Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake – 68 km NNW of Ende, Indonesia

(earthquake.usgs.gov)

135 points | by Bender 3 hours ago

7 comments

  • insaider 2 hours ago
    Is this big enough to produce a Tsunami? Apparently maybe only a small localised one, but I'm supposed to be getting the ferry from Lombok to Bali shortly and two of those have already burnt down the last 2 weeks!
    • decimalenough 1 hour ago
      A ferry in the open ocean is one of the safer places to be during a tsunami. Remember, it's not a surf-style wave, but a gradual increase in water level.
    • Polizeiposaune 9 minutes ago
      Indonesia's tsunami bulletins appear to be here:

      https://rtsp.bmkg.go.id/publicbull.php

      They've declared the event over - some waves were generated but nothing particularly large. Bulletin 3 for the recent quake includes wave height observations - maximum reported was 94cm; most were under 50cm.

    • yxhuvud 4 minutes ago
      Easily big enough, but how deep it was generated and how the movements happened do impact the risk a lot.
    • wiml 1 hour ago
      I've seen "possible tsunami" pre-warnings, and a sea level gauge at/near Lembar showing sea level oscillations - so I would recommend keeping a close watch on some information source that's better than HN comment threads, yes.
      • lostlogin 30 minutes ago
        Correct, but also, I’d bet there is a lurking tsunami expert here somewhere. Nothing is ever too niche for HN.
    • Grimburger 1 hour ago
      Tsunamis are only an issue close to shore. In the ocean it's barely a mild wave.

      In a boat going further out is the safest thing you can do if there's a tsunami warning.

    • bdickason 1 hour ago
      I would upgrade the ferry and make sure to get a high quality one given all the swell in the ocean already (most of bali had 6ft+ waves yesterday) and this incident. Not worth the risk.
    • reilly3000 2 hours ago
      Safe travels, friend.
    • pestatije 1 hour ago
      the tsunami risk is negligible compared to the fire risk
    • rootsudo 1 hour ago
      Interesting times for the ferry indeed
  • CookieCrisp 2 hours ago
    I know large earthquakes are effectively random (ignoring aftershocks) but this feels like a lot this year, yeah?
    • beloch 10 minutes ago
      Earthquakes can occur in swarms[1] (distinct from aftershocks), with many of a similar size (i.e. Not a big quake followed by smaller ones) occurring in a small area over "relatively short" periods of time (i.e. days, weeks, or years).

      The USGS map shows the 7.7 quake being followed by about 19 other smaller quakes near or in Indonesia within just a few hours. These are probably aftershocks.

      -------

      [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_swarm

    • teacpde 2 hours ago
      Yea, feel like a lot of big ones this year, but looking it up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_2026 it is actually not necessarily worse than previous years.
    • ortusdux 2 hours ago
      76 quakes ranking 7.0+ so far this decade, including 10 this year.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_2021%E2%80...

    • jeffrwells 1 hour ago
      HN highlighting a lot this year, is all
    • kermatt 2 hours ago
      • LeBit 2 hours ago
        > Note: While it may look like there have been an increase in total number of earthquakes since about 2020, this is actually due to the increasing number of seismic stations installed in the park since 2020 that are able to detect smaller (<= 0.5 magnitude) earthquakes. If you look at the number of earthquakes >= 1.0, the rate has remained about the same.
        • jwilber 4 minutes ago
          Somehow I don’t think people are confusing raw seismic station earthquake counts with the three back-to-back high profile/magnitude earthquakes.

          I understand the point, maybe those recent earthquakes aren’t ood, but still.

      • goda90 2 hours ago
        Why does this page say there have been 0 >2.5mag earthquakes this year?
        • teraflop 48 minutes ago
          Because this particular sensor network is only monitoring earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, not worldwide.
  • burnt-resistor 2 hours ago
    So Google Earth says the ocean depth at the epicenter is 6,286 ft / 1,916 m, but I couldn't find a corresponding tsunami alert or evaluation of risk.
    • mikeyouse 1 hour ago
      Looks like it was a strike-slip fault, so a much lower tsunami risk compared to a subduction / dip-slip fault.
  • numb_code 1 hour ago
    [flagged]
  • navigate8310 1 hour ago
    [flagged]