2024 West Java earthquake
On 18 September 2024, at 09:41:06 WIB, a 5.0 earthquake struck Bandung Regency in West Java, Indonesia, east-southeast of Banjar. The earthquake killed two people and injured at least 159 others.
Tectonic setting
Java lies near an active convergent boundary that separates the Sunda Plate to the north and the Australian Plate to the south. At the boundary, marked by the Sunda Trench, the northward-moving Australian Plate subducts beneath the Sunda Plate. The subduction zone is capable of generating earthquakes of up to magnitude 8.7, while the Australian Plate may also host deeper earthquakes within the downgoing lithosphere beneath the coast of Java. The subduction zone produced two destructive earthquakes and tsunamis in 2006 and 1994. An intraslab earthquake in 2009 also caused severe destruction.Compared to the highly oblique convergence across the plate boundary in Sumatra, near Java, it is close to orthogonal. However, there is still a small component of left-lateral strike-slip that is accommodated within the over-riding Sunda Plate. The Cimandiri Fault is one of the structures thought to be responsible. Field investigations, combined with morphometric analysis show that the Cimandiri Fault zone is a relatively broad zone of faulting and folding, with six segments identified. Older parts of the fault zone show evidence of dominant left-lateral strike-slip, while younger parts show mainly oblique slip, with a mixture of reverse faulting and left-lateral strike-slip.