Monday’s quakes are among several stronger quakes experienced in recent days after a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.7 shook Indonesia’s Flores Island on Saturday. A magnitude 5.7 quake occurred near Ende (Eastern) at 10 a.m. Monday local time, with subsequent reports indicating more than a dozen strong tremors shaking areas surrounding Flores Island.
According to earthquake monitoring data, this earthquake occurred about 42 kilometres north-north-west of Ende. After that initial event, there have been several accompanying or following events, including others between magnitudes 4.8-5.4 that have all taken place within proximity (within about 45 kilometres) of either Ende or Ruteng.
More recently and perhaps related, there has also been an earth quake measuring 5.4 magnitude just north of Ruteng, another 5.3 magnitude tremor some 68km north-north-west of Ende, as well as numerous quakes of lower magnitude (ranging from 4.8-4.9).
Another magnitude 4.5 earthquake was reported to have been felt 35 kilometres east of Poso on Sulawesi.
But there are currently no immediate reports of casualties or damage from Monday’s series of quakes.
On Sunday alone, eastern Indonesia was suffering the effects of a powerful magnitude 7.7 quake which hit off Flores on Saturday, killing dozens of people and wrecking many homes and other public infrastructure. It left the region with its own series of aftershocks, and even temporarily caused an alarm over a potential tsunami.
Indonesia is located on the seismically active Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean and experiences regular earthquakes and volcanic activity.
