JAKARTA: West Java’s sudden earthquake on Wednesday ( Sep 18 ) which left one dead and over 80 injured was triggered by an unmapped fault, according to Indonesian earthquake experts.
Abdul Muhari, the head of the National Agency for Disaster Management ( BNPB), stated on Thursday that researchers had originally anticipated the earthquake to have occurred on two effective shortcomings in West Java.
However, when modeling was done, it turned out that it had occurred on a problem that had formerly been unmapped.
According to Mr. Abdul,” There are two segments of the Garsela Fault, and neither is the Lembang Fault nor the lively Garsela wrong,” the distribution of the first disaster and aftershocks was confirmed by the Antara news organization.
The West Java Regional Disaster Management Agency ( BPBD ) reported that the magnitude-5 earthquake in Bandung damaged hundreds of houses with a loss of 385 billion rupiah ( US$ 25 million ) and displaced more than 700 people.
The centre was located 25 kilometers south of Bandung regency, on a 10 km stretch of land.
Because it is situated at the confluence of three geological sheets, known as the Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world.
Researchers have said that a massive earthquake, probably followed by a storm, is expected in Indonesia, due to action on the subduction, the area where two big plates meet.
In his article on X in August, Mr. Daryono, brain of the BMKG’s Earthquake and Tsunami Centre, wrote about the two megathrusts in Sumatra and Java,” The release of disasters can be said to be a matter of time.” It has been hundreds of years since a major disaster occurred.
Like some Indonesians, Mr Daryano goes by one title.  ,
In Indonesia, work is still being done to chart energetic faults in order to develop effective disaster mitigation plans.
In the last 10,000 years, effective faults have moved or caused disasters.  ,
Researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency ( BRIN ) Nuraini Rahmah Hanifa in April said that in the 2017 Indonesian earthquake mapping, there were 295 active faults throughout Indonesia, 31 of which were in Java, the country’s most populous island.
With better technologies, researchers in 2024 found more active shortcomings that were formerly unmapped. Now, there are more than 400 effective faults in Indonesia, 75 of which are on Java Island.  ,
” Of these, less than 30 per cent have well-known guidelines”, Ms Nuraini was quoted as saying on BRIN’s site in April.  ,
In Indonesia, there have been several sudden disasters triggered by unmapped failings. One of the biggest was the disaster in Cianjur, West Java, in 2022, which killed around 600 people and destroyed 58, 000 properties.
Mr. Abdul, a representative for BNPB, claimed that the agency has become increasingly concerned about the Bandung earthquake because it has discovered active fault points that have n’t been mapped to reduce the number of casualties.
Ms. Nuraini explained that the government can slim down disaster-prone areas and use the tracking data as a foundation for hazard mitigation policies because appropriate fault mapping and appropriate catastrophe mitigation strategies are present.
She acknowledges, nevertheless, that tracking effective faults is not simple, especially in places like Java, which is already densely populated.  ,
” Geological study calls for digging in the earth. If there are many homes, it makes it more difficult to do the research”, said Ms Nuraini.  ,