A 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale struck the island of Lombok in Indonesia and was followed by a mini-tsunami with a wave more than 10 meters high, killing more than 30 people.
The epicenter was located at sea, 18 kilometers north-west of Lombok and 15 kilometers deep.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the Indonesian Disaster Management Agency, said many buildings were damaged in Mataram, Lombok's main city, stating that "Most were buildings built with weak materials." The testimonies collected among the residents said they felt a strong tremor that pushed people into the streets, cut the electricity and forced to evacuate patients from the main hospital in the city.
Many hotels on the island, popular with Western tourists for its white beaches and coral reefs, have been evacuated. The quake was also heard in Bali where, as many posts on social media testify, there was damage to buildings and shopping centers.
A week ago, another 6,4 earthquake struck the island, causing the death of 17 people and destroying hundreds of buildings.
Indonesia, an archipelago composed of thousands of islands, is located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which stretches for about 40.000 km in a horseshoe shape surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
The Ring of Fire is the home of some of the most powerful, imposing and lethal forces seen on our planet. The violent geological energies that have given the region its threatening name explain almost 90% of the earthquakes in the world. In the region we also find the three quarters of all the volcanoes in the world, active and inactive, that dot the Pacific coasts, snaking in the western seas from South America to Oceania.