Image source: sangam.org
"Is our area safe from the earthquake and tsunami?" This question arises, even often thrown out after the greatest earthquake and tsunami ever 26 December 2004 in Aceh. Not only by the laity, the figures and the elite also asked similar questions. To this question, the earth scientists only dare to state that the energy released by the epicenter was so weak that it took hundreds of years to regroup and give birth to the 9-magnitude quake shake that had happened.
However, the statement does not necessarily make us feel safe and immediately free from the threat of the earthquake. Moreover, earthquake centers, both at sea and on the ground, which we know as Semangko Fault (Sumatera Fault) remains a threat to watch out for.
Earthquakes are unpredictable, but that does not mean we surrender and give up to fate. In reality, we are living together with the earthquake even though when he came we will never know. In these conditions, what is important to us is actually how we can be ready and alert whenever the earthquake comes suddenly.
Image source: goriau.com
After the earthquake accompanied by tsunami waves struck Aceh and Nias at the end of 2004, many earthquakes came and then shook the country. The earthquakes came and went in a rotation like a social gathering. In fact, thirteen years after the earthquake of Aceh, at least in Indonesia there have been ten times large-scale earthquake with heavy casualties and wealth also; the earthquake of Nias (March 28, 2005), the earthquake of Yogjakarta (27 May 2006), earthquake and tsunami in Pangandaran, West Java (July 17, 2006), the earthquake of West Sumatera (March 6, 2007), Bengkulu earthquake (12 September 2007), the earthquake of Tasik Malaya , West Java (September 2, 2009), the earthquake that occurred in Padang (30 September 2009) that the vibrations this time was felt to most of the island of Sumatra, and also re-occur a major earthquake in Aceh, precisely in Pidie Jaya District (December 7, 2016) , resulting in 7,814 houses damaged, and hundreds of people died.
Again, after witnessing the reality of the disaster and in the hope of saving many lives and avoiding casualties on a massive scale, we again ask: can earthquakes be predicted before they occur? Against this question again we also replied that the experts said the tectonic earthquakes cannot be predicted with certainty. The earthquake still leaves a mystery in the earth's layers. Only the phrase "we only know the earthquake, after the earthquake happened" that can be spoken so far.
Image source: chandikolo.wordpress.com
Various attempts to forecast the earthquake indeed ever and seems to be carried out by the earth experts though up to now still have not found a technology that can predict precisely and accurately when the earthquake will occur, how much strength, which is also an epicenter. In the 1970s Chinese scientists once claimed to be able to predict earthquakes, so before the earthquake in Haicheng (1975) took place, they announced to residents to rescue themselves. The information about the earthquake is indeed successful to minimize the victim. However, a year later, at 3:42 am on 27 July 1976 they were missed without any sign indicating a major magnitude 7.4-magnitude quake in Tangshan, an industrial city in northeastern China. Tangshan Earthquake incised wounds with the number of victims reached 800,000 people. The same thing happened in the forecast of a group of California University scientists who declared in September 2004 a magnitude 6.5 magnitude earthquake in southern California. However, until the end of 2004, even to this day, the forecast has never been proven.
Finally indeed, in the condition of our inability to predict when an earthquake will occur, the most important thing we need to do is train ourselves to be ready and alert whenever the earthquake happened. Here, of course, the role of scientists is needed to help the common people about how to construct residential houses and public buildings such as schools, hospitals, office buildings and markets, which are robust and earthquake-resistant. Similarly, the necessity of having the standardization of earthquake-resistant buildings and, even this is very urgent, about how the standardization can be made local regulations in order to have the ability to bind all parties.
Image source: researchgate.net
Not only in the case of earthquakes. The same thing needs to be done also against the threat of tsunami hazard. Especially because in the vicinity of Sumatra there are still many epicenters where the occurrence of a large energy release is not impossible to cause a bad impact for the surrounding area. Did not we remember that the tsunami in Aceh turned out to hit a number of places in the time interval not long after the earthquake: the Andaman Islands 30 minutes after the earthquake, Thailand (90 minutes later, Sri Lanka with India (two hours later), and seven hours after tsunami hit east coast of Africa.
Source: Wikipedia
The tsunami of this shipment is known as the distant tsunami (tele tsunami) and remains to be wary of. The existence of Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) installed in several places in Aceh is our effort to obtain early information if there is a tsunami shipment that trigger earthquake sometimes we do not feel. The case of the tsunami in Pangandaran is a valuable lesson for all of us. What an earthquake is not so much felt by the locals but suddenly a tsunami comes as many people are lulled into their night rest.
Source: Wikipedia
Seeing the various bad possibilities ahead where the tsunami could have come without we felt the earthquake, the resettlement of communities around the coast should be reorganized. At the very least, rescue evacuation sites need to be built as much as possible for and functioned as a place for 'disaster preparedness' socialization. Access roads to lead to safe places should be prepared as well. For settlements whose coastal areas are narrow due to the direct border with the hill, it is necessary to prepare road access to the hill for evacuation when the tsunami comes.
On the other hand, the readiness of post-disaster handling should also be a priority of the government in the form of increased skilled human resources for the handling of victims, the availability of adequate medical equipment, and adequate stock logistics.
Beyond that, and this is certainly a more important part of all that has been mentioned above, we, both the government and the public, are well aware that we are living with earthquakes and potential tsunamis. We can not prevent earthquakes and tsunamis, but we can reduce the risk. Therefore, we must always be vigilant, ready, and always surrendered to God Almighty. Only with this awareness, we can give birth to a sway-resistant society, which is ready and alert to sudden earthquake shaking.
Source :
- chandikolo.wordpress.com
- id.wikipedia.org
- Adriansyah, Faizal, 2012, Aceh Laboratorium Bencana, Banda Aceh.
My previous post about Geology:
- Scientific Explanation About The Mystery of Earth's Layers
- Scientific Explanation About When Earth Shakes
- Scientific Explanation About The Land Keeps Moving