Quake jolts Siak in Riau

The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru Sat, 03/31/2012

The second quake in a week jolted Riau at around 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, although the province is not located in an earthquake-prone area, with tremors felt in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru.

The jolt was measured at 4.9 on the Richter scale. The Pekanbaru office of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded the jolt as centering some 41 kilometers northeast of Siak Sri Indrapura, the administrative seat of Siak regency.

“The epicenter is some 10 kilometers deep and did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami,” said an analyst at BMKG Pekanbaru, Yudhistira.

“BMKG is monitoring the situation and cannot predict whether there will be any aftershocks or other quakes.”

There has been no report of damage and many residents in Siak Sri Indrapura were unaware of the quake.

“I did not feel it, nobody here was aware of the quake,” said Rian Iskandar, a journalist who happened to be in Siak Sri Indrapura when the quake took place.

Siak Sri Indrapura is located some 120 kilometers east of Pekanbaru.

Residents in Pekanbaru also did not feel the jolt except for those who were in high rise buildings, such as those in Awal Bros Hospital, which caused concern to patients and their families.

“I was standing by the wall on the ninth floor so I felt the jolt. When I rushed my sick relative out the room, other visitors also did the same in panic,” said Sulaiman who was visiting a relative being treated at the hospital.

The panic lasted only for a few minutes and all patients returned to their rooms after the jolt stopped.

On Thursday, a quake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale was felt in Pekanbaru at about 5:30 p.m. with the epicenter some 19 kilometers northwest of Pekanbaru, 19 kilometers deep. The tremor was felt as far as Duri in Bengkalis regency, some 120 kilometers north of Pekanbaru.