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  • Hacker News
  • So Google Earth says the ocean depth at the epicenter is 6,286 ft / 1,916 m, but I couldn't find a corresponding tsunami alert or evaluation of risk.
    by burnt-resistor
  • Looks like it was a strike-slip fault, so a much lower tsunami risk compared to a subduction / dip-slip fault.
    by mikeyouse
  • This morning, when I woke up, I checked the phone notifications. I saw some alerts from the LastQuake app that a major earthquake occurred on Flores. I didn't feel it here in Bukit, Bali, where I currently reside.
    by alekstret
  • Interestingly enough, south of Spain also had a earthquake this morning: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/14/world/europe/..., last one was in 2025 but before that 2021. Maybe too few data points to extrapolate any wider pattern, but skimming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Spain they seem to be picking up in frequency.
    by embedding-shape
  • I know large earthquakes are effectively random (ignoring aftershocks) but this feels like a lot this year, yeah?
    by CookieCrisp
  • It does feel like a lot
    by jtfrench
  • Randomness without clusters probably isn't random.
    by onion2k
  • I was wondering the same: https://www.morageology.com/earthquake_year.php
    by kermatt
  • Sure feels like it in my corner of the Bay Area, since we had a prolonged earthquake swarm earlier this year, even hitting a record number of earthquakes per day or something like that.
    by keeda
  • Earthquakes can occur in swarms[1] (distinct from aftershocks), with many of a similar size (i.e. Not a big quake followed by smaller ones) occurring in a small area over "relatively short" periods of time (i.e. days, weeks, or years).

    The USGS map shows the 7.7 quake being followed by about 19 other smaller quakes near or in Indonesia within just a few hours. These are probably aftershocks.

    -------

    [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_swarm

    by beloch
  • 76 quakes ranking 7.0+ so far this decade, including 10 this year.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_2021%E2%80...

    by ortusdux
  • Yea, feel like a lot of big ones this year, but looking it up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_2026 it is actually not necessarily worse than previous years.
    by teacpde
  • Yeah, I looked this up and USGS literally has a page about this.

    https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-are-we-having-so-many-or-so-fe...

    According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 16 major earthquakes in any given year. That includes 15 earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range and one earthquake magnitude 8.0 or greater. In the past 40-50 years, our records show that we have exceeded the long-term average number of major earthquakes about a dozen times.

    You can see a map of ALL the 7+ here:

    https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=-89.0318...

    The search filtering is a bit hard to find in the UI but the parameters in the URL can be modified. (We had 16+ 7.0 last year as a comparison)

    by HaloZero
  • Is this big enough to produce a Tsunami? Apparently maybe only a small localised one, but I'm supposed to be getting the ferry from Lombok to Bali shortly and two of those have already burnt down the last 2 weeks!
    by insaider
  • the tsunami risk is negligible compared to the fire risk
    by pestatije
  • Easily big enough, but how deep it was generated and how the movements happened do impact the risk a lot.
    by yxhuvud
  • Lombok will have lots of higher ground at least. You really just have to be careful on and near the beach.
    by seanmcdirmid
  • I would upgrade the ferry and make sure to get a high quality one given all the swell in the ocean already (most of bali had 6ft+ waves yesterday) and this incident. Not worth the risk.
    by bdickason
  • I've seen "possible tsunami" pre-warnings, and a sea level gauge at/near Lembar showing sea level oscillations - so I would recommend keeping a close watch on some information source that's better than HN comment threads, yes.
    by wiml
  • Tsunamis are only an issue close to shore. In the ocean it's barely a mild wave.

    In a boat going further out is the safest thing you can do if there's a tsunami warning.

    by Grimburger
  • Indonesia's tsunami bulletins appear to be here:

    https://rtsp.bmkg.go.id/publicbull.php

    They've declared the event over - some waves were generated but nothing particularly large. Bulletin 3 for the recent quake includes wave height observations - maximum reported was 94cm; most were under 50cm.

    by Polizeiposaune
  • A ferry in the open ocean is one of the safer places to be during a tsunami. Remember, it's not a surf-style wave, but a gradual increase in water level.
    by decimalenough
  • Interesting this earthquake struck shortly after a solar eclipse, implying significant spring tide forces were present. The earthquake occurred near dawn, when the sun/moon pair, Indonesia, and the Earth's core formed a right angle to each other, creating tidal tension forces on the crust.

    Tidal forces have been linked to the Dec. 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake. This paper claims there's a significant link between tidal forces and earthquakes in the region (https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027074). The authors conclude "The observed relationships suggest that the cyclical crustal flexing, which will be at a maximum at full or new moons, might provide sufficient extra force to a plate-boundary region already on the point of rupture to trigger an earthquake that was ‘waiting to happen’."

    by while_true_