Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Bureau (BMKG) issued a warning for the tidal flood in Jayapura due to the Super New Moon in January 21, 2023.
“On January 21, 2023, there is going to be super new moon or a phase of a new moon followed with perigee (when moon is at its closest to the earth), raising the potential of a high tide,” said Head of Maritime Meteorology Station of Jayapura, Heri Purnomo, through his written statement, Wednesday (1/18).
According to Heri, the tidal flood is a flood in shores that usually happened due to the high tidal or waves that are inundated in areas that are lower than sea level.
Scientifically, sea tide is a pattern of fluctuations in sea water caused by the attraction of objects in space, mainly caused by the sun and moon on sea water.
Therefore, when a supermoon occurs, people who are often do activities in the sea are advised to be aware of tidal waves.
“According to our monitoring on water level, the height of the tidal in Jayapura is in moderate level with the height of 2,0 meters and the predictions of high tide shows the height reaches 1.4 meters. This condition affects the dynamics of the coast in the northern waters of Papua, one of which is in the Jayapura City area,” said Heri.
He also stated firmly that supormoon is not related to the last two-weeks earthquake that happened in Jayapura.
Heri appealed the people to not easily swayed issues that are going to be circulated in social media with unreliable sources and asked only to keep up with the information from BMKG.
“People asked to be calm and not get swayed by news with unreliable sources or hoaxes that circulated in the internet. You just need to follow up the official page of BMKG through InfoBMKG apps, or its social media and official website,” he said.