Residents in Nabire regency, Papua, felt an earthquake for three seconds at 8:52 a.m. on Sunday.
The 5.3-magnitude earthquake, whose epicenter was located 69 kilometers east of Nabire at a depth of 11 kilometers, did not have the potential to cause a tsunami, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.
“Residents’ activities remain normal [despite the earthquake]. There was no panic. The weather is fine,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Sunday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
An earthquake-prone area, Nabire may experience relatively frequent earthquakes resulting from fault lines between the Sorong and the Taerua-Aiduna faults, which reportedly move an average of 2 centimeters per year, and the Pacific plate, which dives below the Eurasian plate some 8 to 10 centimeters every year.
“It was no surprise for Nabire to have 7.1 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in 2004, or when there was a 7.1-magnitude earthquake south of Nabire in 1995, although all of them had epicenters on the land and caused extensive damage,” Sutopo said. (png/mtq)