Magnitude 5.7 earthquake — Ruteng, Indonesia

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia on 20 August 2026, with its epicentre located approximately 32 kilometres north-north-east of Ruteng, the capital of Manggarai Regency in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake occurred at 02:46:59 UTC (around 10:46 local time, WITA) at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, with coordinates of 8.3582°S, 120.6104°E. Shallow earthquakes of this kind tend to produce stronger shaking at the surface than deeper events of comparable magnitude, and USGS shake-map data recorded a peak ground acceleration of 0.341g in the vicinity, corresponding to modelled intensities of up to VI ("Strong") on the Modified Mercalli scale in the areas closest to the epicentre.

USGS assigned the event a green alert level, indicating that no significant casualties or damage were anticipated, and ground-failure modelling suggested a low risk of landslides or soil liquefaction; no tsunami warning was issued. Only a small number of felt reports had been logged with USGS shortly after the quake, reflecting the sparsely populated, mountainous terrain around Ruteng. Indonesia's meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency, BMKG, which monitors seismic activity nationally, indicated that aftershocks were possible in the hours and days following the main shock. Flores lies in a highly active seismic zone shaped by the collision of the Australian and Sunda tectonic plates, and has a history of destructive earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.8 quake and tsunami in 1992 that killed more than 2,000 people. No casualties or significant structural damage had been confirmed in connection with this latest event at the time of writing.