On 3/13/2010 2:59:03 PM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 and depth 35km has struck an highly populated area in the Sumatera Utara Province (population: 9.3 million) in Indonesia. GDACS estimates the likelihood for need of international humanitarian intervention to be low.
This earthquake can have a medium humanitarian impact since the affected region is highly populated and has medium resilience for natural disasters.
The nearest populated places are Afulu (16km), Dima (15km), Lahewa (8km), Faighunago (16km), Sifahandro (17km). It is a hilly region with a maximum altitude of 729 m.
Potentially affected People
The population in the area of this earthquake if 22 people/km².
The earthquake occurred at 21h local time. At this time a day, more people are at home and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing residential buildings. During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other road infrastructure.
Critical infrastructure
The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:
Nuclear power plants: There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
Hydrodams: There are no hydrodam facilities nearby the epicenter.
The distance to nuclear installations is evaluated based on a 1999 UN dataset containing the location of nuclear plants in the world. If plants are near and the earthquake magnitude is above 6.5, the alert is set to orange. Note that the location of plants is approximate with errors of up to 100km.
Getting there and away
The nearest civilian airport (Gunungsitoli) is at 46km from the epicenter. Other airports are: Binaka (60km), Gunungsitoli (46km), Pinangsore (185km)
