Why do a series of big earthquakes attack Indonesia?

In the past 3 weeks, Indonesia's Lombok island has been constantly shaken by a series of high-intensity earthquakes that killed more than 500 people and hundreds of thousands of people had to live "in the sky".

According to experts, the earthquakes occurred at the end of July as a result of the collision between the two Earth's crust plates, the continent of Oceania and the Eurasian continent just below the Indonesian island nation. The repression between the two shells creates geological activities along the major fault called the Flores arch in the north of Lombok, running from the end of Java island to Timor island.

The expert on Earth crust and geology at Curtin University, Western Australia, Chris Elders said: "There are clearly different parts of the fracture that moved at that time, creating such pressures". .

Rescuers are on duty at the crumbling scene after the earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia on August 8.

Elders expert said, geological activities increase when different parts of the fracture break out and move. This is why many major earthquakes occurred in Lombok. However, determining exactly what caused the fracture is much more difficult than pointing out that there is a compression in this area.

According to senior scientist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja of Indonesia Institute of Science, " the fracture will move periodically when the pressure increases."

Scientists also point out that a series of aftershocks occur after strong earthquakes are normal phenomena, but the occurrence of seismic events with similar intensity is very unusual.

Earthquake research expert from Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia) Adang Surahman said: "It usually takes a long time, a new big earthquake happens again because energy has diminished. However in Lombok, the magnitude of the earthquake is even greater than the previous one . There may still be imbalance and shift between tectonic plates " . This means there is still a risk of major earthquakes in this area in the near future.

In the past July 29 and August 5, Lombok suffered two strong earthquakes that caused serious loss of life and property. Next, on August 19, the island continued to be shaken by a series of new earthquakes and aftershocks, in which the strongest earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 Richter.

as well as the whole Indonesian island nation are located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" , where the Earth's crust collides, causing this area to frequently occur earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In 2004, a 9.3-magnitude earthquake followed a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, West Indonesia, which claimed the lives of 220,000 people in coastal Indian Ocean countries, of which 168,000 were Indonesians. .