Earthquakes in Indonesia

Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Indo-Australian plate plunges beneath the Sunda and Eurasian plates along a subduction zone stretching thousands of kilometres off Sumatra, Java and the eastern islands. This constant grinding of plates makes the archipelago one of the most earthquake and volcano-rich nations on Earth.

The deep offshore trench west of Sumatra is capable of the very largest quakes, as the magnitude 9.1 Aceh earthquake of 2004 tragically proved when its tsunami killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara all sit in high-hazard zones, combining strong shaking with the added dangers of tsunamis and landslides.