Earthquakes in Indonesia.

Following the earthquakes in Indonesia just after New Year we look at why the region is so vulnerable.

« Continuing earthquakes and aftershocks in the remote Papua region of Indonesia are hampering efforts to
reach the affected area. Several strong... »
« Night has fallen across Indonesia now and many people in Manokwari remain extremely frightened. Reports
from the ground say most are sleeping outside their houses or in makeshift camps, hurriedly set up by the
government and other agencies. More than 20 tremors have shaken the region since the early hours of Sunday
morning. The affected area, one of the most remote and underdeveloped in Indonesia, sits at the meeting point
of four of the earth's tectonic plates. »

The earthquakes that hit eastern Indonesia just after New Year brought back the horrific memories of the
devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the region almost exactly four years ago, killing 250,000 people.
Despite reaching 7.6 on the Richter scale, and triggering a tsunami alert, the recent damage was limited to a
small region where 4 people died and around 10 to 15 buildings collapsed. Ever since the 2004 earthquake,
there have been repeated calls for more warning and more precautions in Indonesia.
Roland Peas is a BBC Science expert. He's been following the earthquake activity in the area.

- Roland, first, what is it about this area that makes it so vulnerable?

- Well as Lucy Williams said in that report, it is geologically an incredibly active area. What you have
essentially is the floor of the Indian ocean being pushed underneath south Asia. And you have the Australian
plate, tectonic plate, being pushed under the Pacific Ocean. And if you look at a map, you'll see a long arc
going all the way down Sumatra, across Java, all in Indonesia, across Papua New Guinea and round the other
side of Australia, and all along there is where these earthquakes are happening. And it's just because this
movement of up to 10 cm a year, that's a metre every ten years. Australia for example gets closer to Japan.
- And, and how complicated is the junction of those plates? Is it something that builds up into a continuous
pressure and then slips or is it, in this area, more complicated?
-It is essentially that, they're like springs that are being pushed together and then every now and again, at some
point rather, it snaps and they come closer together, and that's when suddenly you get an earthquake. And it's
incredibly active. You know I've got a list here: the island of Flores in 1992, 2,500 people killed, 25-metre
tsunami; the island of Java, just two years after that, a 14-metre tsunami with 250 dead; Irian Jaya in 1996, not
so many dead but a large tsunami; Papua New Guinea, this was a very interesting one, just to the east of where
this earthquake was, er..., in 1998, the earthquake wasn't so big but what happened was it dislodged a landslide
under the sea falling down this sort of trench which is, marks where it all happens, and that created a tsunami
that washed over two or three fishing villages, another 2,500 dead. So this is going on and on and of course,
the absolutely tragic events of Sumatra in 2004. And that's why I think, it is happening all the time, not ever on
the scale of the Sumatran one but; where you're getting hundreds or thousands being killed, year on, year on,
year on; and it is going to be like that.
- Well, as you say, it’s happening all the time, relatively regularly in this region, which of course makes people
talk a lot and ask questions about warnings, precautions. What is being done? And what could be improved on
that, and was it done in this case for this year?
- There is a system in place, it's still being built, and they did give a warning five minutes after the earthquake
happened, and that gives about 15-minutes warning that the people can act on. What they're doing is they’re
using seismometers across the area that can tell when there's an earthquake, but whether that's going to create a
tsunami is still not so obvious, and so they have, they’re putting down for example water pressure sensors
down at the bottom of the sea floor, they can feel the weight of that tsunami coming forwards, and that's a
system which is being put into place at the moment.
- Roland Peas thank you very much for that at the moment; we'll come back to you later. So getting better
there's still a long way to go.