'Indonesian quake could trigger volcanic activity'
Agencies Posted online: Thursday, August 09, 2007 at 1205 hours IST
Jakarta, August 9: A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake that shook Indonesia's main island of Java on Thursday morning could trigger activity at some of the islands many volcanoes, experts said.
The undersea quake, centred about 110 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta and off the north coast of Java, occurred just after midnight, rattling buildings and sending panicked residents onto the streets.
The quake struck at a depth of about 290 kilometres, too deep to unleash a tsunami, geologists said. But it was felt as far afield as North Sumatra to the west and in Bali about 880 kilometres to the east.
"We are closely monitoring Mount Ceremai and Mount Slamet," Surono, head of the energy ministry's Volcanology Centre told Elshinta radio, referring to two volcanoes on densely populated Java.
"If the pressure at the volcanoes is quite high, it may trigger volcanic activity," he said.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the probability of such an event however was low.
Prih Harjadi, head of the geophysics department at the agency, said, "considering the depth of the quake, the probability that the quake will trigger volcanic activity is quite low, although not impossible."
"The nature of deep quakes such as this is that they are widely felt but usually not destructive," he said.
The earthquake frightened many Indonesians, who have endured repeated major and deadly tremors in recent years, including a powerful 2004 quake that unleashed a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 1,68,000 people in the province of Aceh alone, the worst hit area.
