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  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • I know large earthquakes are effectively random (ignoring aftershocks) but this feels like a lot this year, yeah?
  • 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!
  • 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’."

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Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake – 68 km NNW of Ende, Indonesia · Birbla