Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Indonesia's Flores, tsunami warning issued and later lifted

Earthquake strikes Flores region

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Flores region in the early hours of Saturday, 15 August 2026, at 5:58 AM local time (21:58 GMT Friday). The U.S. Geological Survey reported the epicenter at 68 kilometers (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende, in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). The quake hit the Flores region at low depth offshore the island. Two aftershocks followed the initial tremor, according to Czech Television and Deutsche Welle. No casualties or damage to people or property were reported in the immediate aftermath, according to AP and Deutsche Welle.

Tsunami warning and evacuation order

Indonesia's Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) issued a tsunami warning and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the submarine quake near the island of Flores at shallow depth. Authorities monitored coastal tide gauges closely to detect any changes in sea level. Residents along affected coasts were advised to move to higher ground while the monitoring continued.

Abdul Muhari, an official with the national disaster management agency BNPB, called on communities along the northern coast of Flores and in southern areas to evacuate immediately. He spoke to local broadcaster Kompas TV with specific instructions for residents.

We strongly urge our communities along the northern coast of Flores and in the southern zones, in the southern islands and throughout the southern region, to carry out immediate self-evacuation.

Residents were advised to move more than two kilometers inland or to hilly areas above 10 meters in elevation, Muhari told Kompas TV. The evacuation call covered the northern coast of Flores, the southern islands, and the broader southern region of the affected area.

Warning declared over

The Indonesian tsunami early warning system later declared the tsunami warning over. The warning had prompted evacuation orders across coastal communities in the Flores region. An updated alert from the BMKG stated that the warning caused by the magnitude 7.7 earthquake had been declared over. The agency's statement identified the earthquake location as 30 km northeast of Mbay-Nagekeo in Nusa Tenggara Timur, with a recorded time of 15 August 2026 at 04:58:24 WIB (Western Indonesia Time). The statement described this as the latest information provided by the Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System.

Seismic context

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin that makes it prone to frequent seismic and volcanic activity. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the eastern part of the archipelago in early July 2026, causing no victims or serious damage. In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami killed 2,200 people in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, a city of approximately 400,000 inhabitants.