Earthquake struck Indonesia

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian’s Sulawesi Island on Monday (July 26th ) at a depth of 30km (18.64 miles), reported by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). The strong quake struck about 90km west of Luwuk (pop. 47,800) in shallow waters at a depth of 10km (6 miles), there is no further reports issued, hopefully, it would not cause heavy damage.

Indonesia is home to more than 260 million people, geographically the islands are located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where seismic faults where tectonic plates collide, leading to frequent volcanic activity, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Furthermore, there are environmentalists who argue that forest destruction and climate change are also affecting the severity of the disaster.

According to the statistics on Volcano Discovery, in the past 30 days, there were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher, 26 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 to 6.0, 169 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 to 5.0, and 387 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 to 4.0, 434 quakes of magnitude 2.0–3.0, 67 quakes of magnitude below 2.0 that people usually can barely feel have happened in Indonesia.

At the beginning of this year, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake also hit Indonesia in January, took the lives of hundreds, thousands of people were injured, and roughly 94,500 people were displaced in Mamuju and Majene Districts. These number of huge casualties and property losses were actually the figures of living life. After the earthquake, although the streets were full of debris, people would still be fearing aftershocks and chose to live in the outdoor. Except the physical casualties, there were much likely to cause psychological trauma to those who experience the disaster.

We may be helpless in the face of ruthless natural hazard, but humanitarian taking care, love, respect and help people, people-oriented principle, actively support and attention to help the locals fight against the disaster at the first time. With the progress of the search and rescue operation, humanitarian assistance from different channels is also under way. In addition to the material needs of relief materials, medical equipment, drinking water, food and financial funds, psychological assistance is also an important part of the post-disaster reconstruction work. We will continue to keep up with update news, and sincerely hope that the people in the disaster area will soon overcome difficulties.

By: Meiya Su