So this morning, I was minding my own business, working from home, when all of the sudden Ray sent a string of messages to the work group-chat informing us that she felt the office building “shake like an earthquake”. Several other colleagues also noted that they felt the tremour, and that it’s a particularly strong one—which is a very strange experience in Kuala Lumpur.
Of course, when we want to try and confirm something that has happened we often look to Twitter. Lo and behold, the word “earthquake” is even trending on Malaysian Twitter. My own feed is also plastered with local users asking if anyone else had felt it, too.
Some users also reported seeing their doors and chairs shaking and objects fixed to the walls trembling. Many also admitted to thinking that they thought they were “dizzy due to low blood sugar“.
Turns out, it’s due to a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that had hit West Sumatera in Indonesia around 9.43am. The tremors of that earthquake were so strong that it was reportedly felt in not only Kuala Lumpur, but in Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, and Klang too.
Peninsular Malaysia is usually known as an “earthquake-free zone“, because the country is situated relatively far from active seismic fault region. However, a research publication by UTM noted that Peninsular Malaysia is “now closer to the epicenter and will experience greater impact in future quakes”.
In East Malaysia back in 2015, an earthquake struck Sabah with a magnitude of 6.0. The earthquake was the strongest to affect Malaysia since the 1976 Sabah earthquake.
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