The March 2007 Sumatra earthquakes occurred near the northern end of

Lake Singkarak Lake Singkarak ( id, Danau Singkarak) is a lake in West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is located between the regencies of Tanah Datar and Solok Regency. It has an area of 107.8 km2, being approximately 21 km long and 7 km wide. The natura ...

in Sumatra,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, on March 6. The first shock in this

earthquake doublet __NOTOC__ In seismology, doublet earthquakes – and more generally, multiplet earthquakes – were originally identified as multiple earthquakes with nearly identical waveforms originating from the same Epicenter, location. They are now characteri ...

struck with a maximum

Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of VIII (''Severe'') and the second shock that arrived two hours later had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (''Strong'').

Earthquakes

The initial quake at 10:49 (03:49 UTC) measured 6.4 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

and the second quake at 12:49 (05:49 UTC) measured 6.3. The earthquakes were felt as far away as

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, which prompted the evacuation of some buildings there.

Effects

Over 60 fatalities and 460 serious injuries have been reported, spread across many towns and regencies in

West Sumatra West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5,534,472 at the 2020 cen ...

. Over 43,000 houses were damaged, with over 12,000 of those severely damaged. The severe damage to other structures includes over 130 public facilities, 310 mosques, 60 government buildings, 370 schools, and 230 shops. According to the governor of West Sumatra,

Agam Regency Agam Regency ( id, Kabupaten Agam) is a regency of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It has an area of 2,264.89 km2 and had a population of 454,853 at the 2010 census and 529,138 at the 2020 census.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. The regency sea ...

is the worst affected area, though other areas including Solok Regency and

Tanah Datar Tanah Datar Regency is a landlocked regency (''kabupaten'') in West Sumatra province, Indonesia. The regency has an area of 1,336 km2, and had a population of 338,484 at the 2010 Census, which rose to 371,704 at the 2020 Census. The regency sea ...

are also badly affected. The total value of damage is estimated to be around 1.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$160 million).

Response

A variety of local and international aid organizations have deployed to the region to assist victims. A number of countries have pledged aid, including the Netherlands (US$2.0 million), Sweden (US$1.0 million), Canada (US$0.21 million), Malaysia (US$0.16 million), United States (US$0.1 million) and Taiwan (US$0.06 million). The US AID has supplied them with all sorts of essentials like blankets, water, food and first aid kits.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2007 Sumatra Earthquakes Sumatra 2007 Sumatra March 2007 events in Asia History of West Sumatra Earthquakes in Sumatra

Earthquakes

Effects

Response

See also

References

Further reading

External links