October 10, 1896 Earthquake: SW. Sumatra, Java, Indonesia

Reference #414:

1896, October 10, 17:30 (local time). 3.5 S, 102.5 E, depth 130 km, magnitude 6.75 MS. There was an earthquake on the southwestern coast of the islands of Sumatra and Java.

There were two heavy tremors at Bengkulu; the roof of one home in the Chinese quarter collapsed. The earthquake also occurred at Lais, Seluma, Mana, Mukomuko, Kauer, and Krui.

There were rather strong and prolonged tremors at Talangpadang and Padangulaktanding (Palembang Province). There were two rather strong tremors in very rapid succession at Muaradua. There was a weak horizontal

shock at Lahat. There was an earthquake at Telukbetung.

There was a rather strong and prolonged earthquake at Ardjasari; there was an earthquake at Sinagar, and there were weak horizontal tremors at Gede, Tjiandur and Mangunradja.

At Rsngkasbitung and Malingping, there were horizontal shocks lasting 30 seconds. At Bogor (Buitenzorg), tremors lasted 5-7 minutes. There were very many weak shocks, following each other at 2-3 second intervals. Only the first two were felt distinctly; they caused swaying of lamps. The others could be noticed only from the trembling of reflections in water in a glass. The earthquake was registered intensively by the Milne seismograph and the magnetograph at Djakarta (Batavia); the oscillations lasted at least 10 minutes.

At Natal, three shocks lasting 15, 50 and 10 seconds occurred one after another. There were regular, not strong, oscillations at Singkel.