JAKARTA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian agencies will jointly install 11 seismographs in several locations in eastern province of Maluku as aftershocks continues after the last month's powerful earthquake,Indonesia National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Spokesperson Agus Wibowo said Thursday.
Agus said the seismograph installment was intended to find out characters of the aftershocks, things that prompted the aftershocks and to prepare the mitigation efforts should it continues in the future.
"Installment of those instruments would be jointly carried out by BNPB, BMKG (Meteorological, Geophysics and Climatology Agency) and ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) university within the next 10 days. Installment works would be assisted by personnel from Maluku military command headquarters," Agus said.
Besides in the province's capital of Ambon, those seismographs would also be installed in the province's islands of Haruku, Seram and Saparua, he said.
He said that as of Thursday, the number of aftershocks from the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Sept. 26 have reached 1,637.
The latest aftershocks were detected between magnitudes of 1.5 to 3.5 on Thursday at around 09:00 a.m. local time, significantly felt in the province's several locations of Kairatu, Ambon and Talaud, Agus added.
The aftershocks have increased risk of damages and collapse in public houses and buildings in the province, he said.
The 6.5 earthquake and the aftershocks in Maluku province have killed 41 people, injured 365 others and also displaced over 103,000 people, according to BNPB latest data.
