Thread: What's up with Indonesia lately?

Indonesia has had so many earthquakes over the past few years. Does anybody have any ideas about why?

being an island arc, indonesia has always had its fair share of earthquakes, because that's what you get when one plate dives under another one

basically the movement of the subducting plate is not a smooth one, but gets stuck until it jerks loose in one spot, causing an earthquake
however, while this movement may relieve the tension in that particular contact point, it may cause a point nearby to become more unstable and therefore more likely to start moving itself

Thanks for your explanation. Has the frequency increased over the past few years or am I imagining that?

Most likely, observation of the geology has increased over the years due to technologies ranging from areas of seismology to telecommunications. We have sensors in place that didn't exist even 20 years ago and 20 years before that reports of earthquakes there would have been long delayed and considered sidebars to other news since it either happened days/weeks ago or damage was minimal.

These days, and in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, seismic activity in the region is very newsworthy. The whole world is watching for a repeat of 2004's tragedy. In real time. The last tsunami warnings in the region traveled faster by Twitter than they did any other media outlet.

Originally Posted by WVBIG

Thanks for your explanation. Has the frequency increased over the past few years or am I imagining that?

not that i'm aware of, but there is always the possibility of clustered earthquake events, even if they're a few months or years apart, and that may just give the impression that there's increase - likelihood is that it all evens out over longer time scales