EXPLAINER: Why was Indonesia’s shallow quake so deadly?

By VICTORIA MILKO
AP Science Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 5.6 magnitude earthquake left more than 260 dead and hundreds injured as buildings crumbled and terrified residents ran for their lives on Indonesia’s main island of Java. Bodies continued to be pulled from the debris on Tuesday morning in the hardest-hit city of Cianjur, south of the capital, Jakarta in the country’s most densely populated province of West Java. A number of people are still missing. While the magnitude would typically be expected to cause light damage to buildings and other structures, experts say proximity to fault lines, the shallowness of the quake and inadequate infrastructure that cannot withstand earthquakes all contributed to the damage and the death toll.