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On 27 May an earthquake struck Java, Indonesia, about 25 kilometres south-southwest of the city of Yogyakarta, claiming more than 5,000 lives. News@nature.com takes a look at the situation. Philip Ball
How big was the quake?
The US Geological Survey has characterized this as a magnitude 6.3 event. That's strong, but not huge; in fact, earthquakes of this size typically happen somewhere in the world every two or three days.
Is it the quake size that determines how bad things get?
The amount of energy released by a quake is important, but the casualties in this case may be disproportionate to the quake's size. "I'm surprised there was that much damage," says geologist James Jackson of the University of Oxford, UK.
The number of people injured and killed often tends to depend more on the nearby population density and on the quality of the buildings than on the quake magnitude. In wealthy countries such as the United States and Japan, earthquake-proofing of buildings and other civic structures tend to keep casualties low for medium-sized quakes such as this one. The most recent quake at Parkfield, California, in 2004 was magnitude 6.0 but killed no one. In contrast, the magnitude-6.6 quake in Bam, Iran, in 2003 caused more than 40,000 deaths, partly because of poor building techniques.
Local geology can also make a difference. At Bam, the destruction was compounded by the city's fatal location, right at the end of the fault, where much of the seismic energy was focused. And at Northridge in California in 1994, damage caused by a magnitude-6.7 quake was exacerbated by sandy soil, which was rendered fluid (liquefaction) by the ground shaking. That was the costliest earthquake in US history, but only 51 people died.
Is this the same fault line as the one that triggered the tsunami?
No, but they're loosely related. The Indian Ocean near the east coast of Indonesia is a patchwork of three major tectonic plates: the Sunda plate to the east, the India plate to the northwest, and the Australia plate to the southwest. The tsunami was caused by a rupture at the convergence of the India plate and the Burma microplate. The Java quake last weekend happened further south, where the Australia plate dips northeastwards beneath the Sunda plate (and thus beneath Java) in a process known as subduction.
Earthquakes are often triggered at subduction zones by slippage of the sinking lower plate. But the Yogyakarta quake was caused by a secondary effect of subduction. The compression of the two plates as they move together put pressure on small, shallow faults behind the actual line of subduction. It was the sideways rupture of one of these that caused the quake. The same process was responsible for the devastating quake in Kobe, Japan, in 1995.
What effect will the quake have on the nearby Merapi volcano, which has been murmuring this past month?
The two are related: the volcanic activity at Merapi, about 80 kilometres to the north of the earthquake focus, is also due to the subduction process. Melting of rock above a subducting plate produces magma that rises up to the surface, which is why there are commonly volcanic islands behind subduction zones.
Some earthquakes have been triggered by magmatic processes linked to volcanic eruptions nearby. Such a link seems unlikely on Java. But the quake itself could affect the volcano. Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, UK, says that there has been a slight increase in Merapi's activity since Saturday. "A lot of shaking could destabilize the lava dome," he says (see 'Indonesian volcano poses unpredictable threat'). It is not clear whether the quake could also affect the deeper magma plumbing system of the volcano.
Andrew Jeremijenko, a doctor who has been working with victims of the quake, says that there was another eruption from Merapi on Monday morning. He fears that a really large one could create many casualties, putting further strain on the relief effort.
Was an event like this expected?
It certainly wasn't surprising. "The whole of Java is seismically active," says Baptie, because it sits over a subduction zone. "There's an earthquake of this size every five years or so in the region." Jackson adds that shallow-fault quakes "aren't uncommon". But Yogyakarta itself has never experienced anything as catastrophic as this before, and seems to have been unprepared for it.
What is the biggest challenge faced by the local people now?
"It's as bad as you see on television," says Dr Jeremijenko. "It's basically a disaster zone." He says there are people with multiple injuries, many needing amputations, and "people are dying who probably shouldn't die." There is a shortage of nurses and equipment, and to make matters worse, it has been raining quite a lot, with many casualties protected only by tents because of a lack of hospital beds. Jeremijenko fears that it is probably only a matter of time before there are epidemic outbreaks of tetanus and possibly cholera, measles and other infectious diseases.
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On Saturday the 27th of May at 5:55 am an Earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit Central Java with the epicenter 20km south of the city of Yogyakarta (also spelt Jogyakarta). The earthquake lasted for over 57 seconds with a second smaller earthquake occurring at 10.15 am.It appears that Bantul area south of Yogyakarta bore the brunt of the damage with almost all buildings being flattened and deaths numbering in the hundreds also Klaten has been badly affected. In Yogyakarta the quake caused serious structural damage to many of the cities buildings.
The current death toll is close to 5,800 and expected to rise, injured 25-30,000, and countless bodies still buried in the rubble. Over 200,000 people are currently displaced, many of whom lost everything when their houses collapsed. There are unconfirmed reports that more than 47,000 homes are completely destroyed and more than 55,000 are damaged and unsafe in the wake of the quake and aftershocks.
Island Aid's Bali based field partners, IDEP*, have received reports of many people not having eaten since the quake struck. Stockpiles of food, medicines and shelter prepared for the impending volcanic eruption of Mount Merapi, which is in the same area, are being exhausted.
On the 29th of May IDEP sent a team of 6 volunteers, with a truck full of medicine and emergency relief supplies, to the affected area. A second larger truck departed on the 1st of June. Volunteers will assist with search and rescue, deliver much needed emergency supplies
and offer assistance to the local teams that are already on the ground – who have been working around the clock since the disaster struck.
First priority is to secure funds for the purchasing of Family Aid Buckets. These buckets contain a wide assortment of food, utensils, water, simple medications, a tarp, candles and a well researched list of items we know from our Aceh experience will be greatly appreciate as families try to re-establish themselves amid the rubble.
Each Family Aid Bucket costs about $60 to prepare. We are aiming to raise funds for 100 of these buckets as a first step. If we complete that goal we will try for 500 Family Aid Buckets in our next appeal.
Please pass on the URL of this page to your friends and associates. DONATE NOW
https://www.fundable.org/groupactions/earthquakefamilykits/groupaction_view
*IDEP are a grass roots organization born out of the chaos of the first Bali bombing. Island Aid worked closely with IDEP's Sam Schultz during the emergency relief operations following the Great Tsunami. The two organizations together channeled more than $1,600,000 in aid to support isolated communities in the area last year.
Your support is needed now in Java as the vast scale of this disaster grows more apparent with each passing day.
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Lisa,
We are all safe in Padang and monitoring the situation in southern central Java.

It seems that the serious quake damage is limited to an area within about 30km of the epicenter but population density is very high. Major agencies have good road, rail and air access to the disaster area and medical supplies are being reported as adequate. The rising death toll is a serious concern an it indicates that there are many more injured than first thought.
I'm in touch with other NGOs who are based close to the area and at this point we think we should focus on disaster readiness in our area rather than try to raise funds or mobilize volunteers for central Java.
We will continue to gather information and to evaluate the situation. The extent of the damage and the death toll seems massive for a 6.3 quake and this is indeed sobering for us living in Padang.
On Sunday we started construction of a simple structure that will serve as a tsunami ark prototype. We are training a team of builders who are skilled in the use of bamboo and we will adapt construction details use overseas to better suit local materials. After we complete this training center building, we will have a detailed understanding of the cost of building the tsunami arks.
We have chosen this location because the area has vast bamboo resources with the highest strength species predominating. Elevation is over 1,500m and this produces the best quality bamboo for construction. The cost of giant bamboo breaks down to about one third to the grower, one third to the harvester and one third for transport. In the location we have selected the bamboo is growing on the farm and so we are only paying for the cutting and trimming allowing us to do a lot more with donor funds.
The organic farm is situated at Air Angat high on the slopes of Merapi volcano (the Sumatran Merapi) where we are working with the Provincial Government on establishing a training center for organic farming technology. The plan is to establish pilot farms in the Mentawai Islands so that the local population can become more self sufficient in vegetable and fruit production. Almost all fresh fruit and vegetables consumed in the Islands are grown on the mainland and recent fuel price hikes have caused prices of fresh produce to almost double in the last few months.

The farm is only 4 km from Merapi's crater.
We also discussed evacuation strategies for the community around the organic training center in case Merapi becomes more active. This has not occurred but the volcano has erupted destructively several times in the past century.
Past eruptions have been directed towards the North and East and have not caused loss of life in the vicinity of the training center.
Community meeting at the training center
Indonesia's highest volcano, Kerinci, went to level 2 alert last month and we have had reports over the past few days of a series of ash eruptions. Kerinci is only 80miles south east of Padang and obviously we are wondering if the increase in seismic activity in Java foreshadows the same for our area.
Kerinci - Indonesia's tallest volcano at 3,800m
On 29 May, 2006, at 5:44 PM, ltfriesen@aol.com wrote:
Rick, are you OK-were you in Jakarta at the time of the earthquake? lisa
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Padang is nervous after a strong shake tonight. This most recent quake did not generate a tsunami in Padang and there was no damage in our area.
Magnitude: 6.8 (Strong)
Date-Time: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 10:28:24 PM = local time at epicenter
Location: 0.074°N, 97.012°E
Depth: 1.9 km (1.2 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
Distances:
270 km (165 miles) SW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
390 km (240 miles) WNW of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia
620 km (385 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
1275 km (790 miles) WNW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
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