A tectonic earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter Scale hit Ujungkulon, West Java, at 07:52 local time on Friday, with tremors from the upheaval also felt in many parts of Baten province, ANTARA reported. The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said on Friday, the epicenter of the quake was located at 6.53 degrees southern latitude and 104.68 degrees eastern longitude at a depth of 15 km, around 95 km northwest of Ujungkulon, West Java. Earlier, an aftershock measuring 5.6 on the Richter Scale also jolted Papua at 23:58 local time on Thursday (Sept 3) with its epicenter located at 4.69 degrees southern latitude and 134.10 degrees eastern longitude at a depth of 48 km, 119 km west of Papua. Meanwhile, people in West Java were on Friday still on alert against possible aftershocks from the magnitude-7.3 quake which hit Tasikmalaya, Jakarta and Central Java, on Wednesday (Sept 2) in which 53 people were killed and thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed or damaged. Wednesday's temblor was also felt in Bengkulu where people were reminded of the 7.3 quake that paralyzed their province in 2007. It prompted plans to accelerate the updating of Indonesia's earthquake zoning map that would provide benchmarks in charting earthquake potentials and the construction of seismically stable housing. The State Ministry for Research and Technology's head of public facilities, Teddy W Sudinda, said a team made up of representatives from the ministry, other state agencies, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) would now try to complete the work by December. The map would contain information based on an earthquake index that would enable people to identify the disaster potential in particular areas, giving a clearer picture of the forms and level of structural integrity required for houses and other buildings.
