Why does indonesia have so many earthquakes

More than people are reported dead. As disaster response teams search for survivors, the death toll continues to rise and hundreds remain missing, trapped or displaced. Nearly 22, people have been evacuated or displaced and many are in need of food, water and basic healthcare. We are rushing to get help to the affected areas.

As countries and NGOs seek to respond to the immediate needs of survivors, support is needed to fund these relief efforts. The weak state of infrastructure and property in combination with the high population density imply that natural disasters in Indonesia may cause more casualties than they should because it will require smaller force to make a building collapse. Indonesia is the country that contains the most active volcanoes of all countries in the world.

The Eurasian Plate, Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate are three active tectonic plates that cause the subduction zones that form these volcanoes. Indonesia is estimated to have volcanoes, all carefully observed by the Centre of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi , because a number of Indonesian volcanoes show continuous activity.

There is at least one significant volcano eruption in Indonesia every year. However, usually it does not cause great damage to the environment or cause casualties as most of the active volcanoes are located in isolated regions. Some notable volcanic eruptions in Indonesia's modern history are listed below. This list only contains major eruptions that led to at least 20 fatalities. The table above shows Indonesia is rocked by a major volcanic eruption meaning one that takes a significant number of lives , on average, once every years.

Besides taking human lives, a volcanic eruption can cause considerable damage to local economies by hurting small and medium enterprises that are involved in tourism, culinary, commercial accommodation, agriculture, plantation, and livestock. See map of major volcanoes in Indonesia. A positive development is that volcano eruptions take less human lives today than in the past due to better volcano observation methods in combination with better organized emergency evacuations. However, considering Indonesia's Centre of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation carefully monitors activity of the volcanoes and immediately warns authorities and local communities when a volcano shows a dangerously rising level of activity, one would think the number of casualties should actually be very low as people have plenty of time to leave the area contrary to an earthquake, a volcanic eruption does not strike suddenly and gives plenty of warning signs before it becomes a life threatening disaster.

The problem is that there are plenty of local residents who simply refuse to leave their homes that are located within the danger zone. This refusal can be related to their livelihood their farms - their only source of income - are located within the danger zone.

But it can also be related to animist believe-systems the volcano's warning signs - such as ash and thunder - are considered to be acts of their angry ancestors, and by praying to the local gods local communities believe they will be protected from any danger. Earthquakes are probably the biggest threat in terms of natural disasters in Indonesia as they come suddenly and can strike in populous areas, such as the bigger cities.

Earthquakes with a magnitude of around five on the scale of Richter occur almost on a daily basis in Indonesia but usually cause no, or little, damage. When the magnitude of the quake becomes more than six on the scale of Richter, then an earthquake can potentially do a lot of damage. On average, Indonesia experiences about one earthquake per year with a magnitude of six, or higher, that causes casualties as well as damage to the infrastructure or environment.

Below is a selected list with recent earthquakes that caused severe damage and at least 20 fatalities:. Earthquakes form a constant threat in Indonesia due to the meeting of major tectonic plates and volcanic activity in the region.

Some earth scientists are currently waiting for the next "great earthquake" in Indonesia due to the building up of stress on one of the earth's great plate boundaries to the west of Sumatra the collision between the Indian ocean plate and the Asian plate , similar to the disastrous 9. However, scientists do not know when, or where, this next big earthquake will happen. See map of tectonic plates that make up the Ring of Fire.

The high number of Indonesian casualties involved in a big quake is partly inflicted by the bad state of some housing facilities and infrastructure. This is why a moderate earthquake can in fact result in many casualties, the collapse of many buildings and the displacement of many people. Its place at the conjunction of four plates, plus tendency for people to live in low-lying areas close to the coast, makes Indonesia's islands particularly at risk from tsunamis.

The recent quake in Sulawesi caused huge damage because the quake hit close to a high population centre in Palu, and the town was then struck again by a wall of water funnelled down a bay to the sea-level town. Watch Live. Ring of fire: Why Indonesia has so many earthquakes. Fill 2 Copy 11 Created with Sketch. Sunday 23 December , UK. Why you can trust Sky News. More on Earthquakes.