M6.5 Earthquake Rocks Java Sea North of Jakarta, Felt Widely
The earthquake posed no tsunami threat and was widely felt as far away as West Sumatra and East Java.
A magnitude 6.5 tectonic earthquake struck the Java Sea, approximately 69 kilometers northeast of Jakarta's Thousand Islands, on the morning of September 12, 2026. According to the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the earthquake struck at 4:23 a.m. local time and had an epicenter at a depth of 368 kilometers, classifying it as a deep-focus earthquake.
BMKG Director of Earthquake and Tsunami Wijayanto stated that the quake was caused by intraslab activity with an oblique-normal movement mechanism. Although the strong earthquake did not trigger a tsunami, its tremors were widely felt across various regions, with the strongest tremors level IV MMI reported in Pandeglang, Lebak, Serang, Sukabumi, Cianjur, and Tanggamus.
Many residents in Tangerang, North Jakarta, Cilacap, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Pacitan, Ponorogo, Malang, Bengkulu, Padang, Mentawai, Pariaman, and Solok Selatan experienced the earthquake at varying intensities. Daryono, a member of the Indonesian Disaster Experts Association, explained that deep-focus earthquakes like this one are less likely to trigger aftershocks due to the lack of active fault activity.
Instead, the rocks on the Australian Oceanic Plate deep within the Java Sea broke, causing the seismic activity. The wide geographical area affected by the earthquake's wave attenuation spectrum extended from Sumatra to eastern Java and Kalimantan due to the homogeneous plate slab medium allowing efficient propagation of seismic waves towards the south.
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