THE INDONESIA FLAG

One of the "Around the World" articles reports on an earthquake that occurred in Indonesia. This week our "Picture of the Week" section expands on both Indonesia and earthquakes!

Indonesia is a country near Australia that is made up of a chain of islands, also called an "archipelago," which extend over 3,000 miles. There are more than thirteen thousand islands that make up Indonesia, of which six thousand are currently inhabited (have people living on them). Indonesia has a population of over 200 billion people, making it the fifth largest country in the world.

Jakarta, which is located on the island of Java, is the capital of Indonesia. Jakarta is Indonesia's largest city.

The official language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, and over 300 other languages are spoken there! Approximately 90% of Indonesians are Muslim while the rest are a combination of Christian, Hindu and Buddhist.

There are over 100 active volcanoes located in Indonesia, and earthquakes are common, although they seldom cause much damage.

Here are some "Fun Facts" about measuring earthquakes. The Richter Scale is the measurement tool, which ranks the severity of earthquakes. Magnitude is the amount of energy released during an earthquake. The Richter Scale is used to measure the magnitude of an earthquake. To determine magnitude on the Richter Scale, the height of waves given off by the earthquake is measured with an instrument called a seisomogram. There is only one magnitude per earthquake even though one earthquake may have various effects on surrounding areas. In other words, an earthquake may have different intensities and cause different amounts of damage at various places, but its magnitude would be the same.

The Richter Scale goes from 3 - 7. The lower the number, the lower the magnitude of the earthquake. It is not likely that an earthquake with a magnitude less than 5 could cause much damage.

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