‘Turkiye quake a warning for us’

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warned that the recent massive earthquake in Turkiye should motivate Indonesia to prepare for earthquake mitigation as Indonesia had the potential to experience earthquakes with a similar scale. BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawati said that just like Turkiye, Indonesia was also vulnerable to catastrophic and complex earthquakes caused by strike slips of active faults.

She said the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkiye on Feb 6 had ruptured all six segments of the East Anatolian Fault, namely Turkoglu, Golbasi, Yarpuzlu, Lakehazar and Gorzali, that stretches up to 300km.

“This phenomenon is a warning for us in Indonesia to be aware of the potential for multi-segment earthquakes to happen here,” Dwikorita said in a discussion.

She added that earthquakes from such a phenomenon had occurred in Lombok Island with five earthquakes of magnitudes 6.4, 7.0, 5.9, 6.2 and 6.9 within three weeks in 2018.

Dwikorita said the 7.8 earthquake from the East Anatolian Fault in Turkiye had triggered a rupture in a separate but nearby fault to the west, namely the Surgu Fault, which triggered another 7.5 earthquake on the same day.

She said the second earthquake had worsened the damage to buildings already affected by the first quake and had expanded total damaged areas.

Major active faults surrounded by other active faults were also found in Indonesia, Dwikorita said, such as Cimandiri Fault, West Java; Semangko Fault (also called Great Sumatran Fault); Palu Koro Fault, Central Sulawesi; Seulimeum Fault, Special Region of Aceh; Kawa Strike-Slip Fault, Maluku; and many others.

She said the Turkiye earthquake had occurred near major cities in central and southern Turkiye in the provinces of Adiyaman, Kilis, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana and Hatay, which are home to 13.5 million people.

“Experts in this focus-group discussion suggested we needed to pay special attention to active faults near dense settlements and large cities,” Dwikorita added.

She called for Indonesia to strengthen its earthquake mitigation efforts by intensifying research on earthquakes, reviewing building constructions, enacting regulations that support earthquake-mitigation efforts and public awareness campaigns on earthquakes.

Indonesia’s search-and-rescue team, sent to Turkiye, returned home on Friday; however, the medical team sent to Turkiye is staying to give further medical assistance to people affected by the earthquake.

In response to the earthquake, Indonesia had sent a search-and-rescue team, a medical team and logistical aid weighing as much as 80 tonnes for Turkiye and 78 tonnes for Syria, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency head Suharyanto.

“Our search-and-rescue team from Basarnas (National Search and Rescue Agency), composed of 50 personnel, returned home, as the Turkyish government stopped the search, rescue and evacuation efforts there,” Suharyanto said at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, East Jakarta, on Friday after welcoming the Indonesian search-and-rescue team.

Indonesia’s emergency medical team, composed of 119 personnel and one Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) Hercules plane, would still be in Turkiye until Feb 28 and March 2, respectively, as Turkiye requested them to stay and help, Suharyanto added.

As of Friday, Turkiye declared a 44,218 death toll due to the earthquakes while Syria announced a death toll of 5,914, bringing the combined death toll in the two countries to over 50,000, Reuters reported. — The Jakarta Post/ANN