{"id":34185,"date":"2020-04-30T13:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/?p=34185"},"modified":"2024-02-21T13:12:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T13:12:43","slug":"new-tsunami-risk-identified-in-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/news\/new-tsunami-risk-identified-in-indonesia\/","title":{"rendered":"New tsunami risk identified in Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof David Tappin, a tsunami expert at the BGS and UCL, was part of a research team led by Heriot-Watt University that used seismic data to map underneath the sea floor of the Makassar Strait, the narrow seaway between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team say their findings mean that coastal communities currently without tsunami warning systems or mitigation systems could be at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They found evidence of 19 ancient submarine landslides. Submarine landslides have triggered tsunami waves before, such as the 2018 event on Sulawesi in Indonesia, although most tsunamis are caused by large earthquakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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Dr Rachel Brackenridge, now at University of Aberdeen, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found evidence of submarine landslides happening over 2.5million years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey happened every 160,000 years or so and ranged greatly in size. The largest of the landslides comprised 600km3 of sediment, while the smallest we identified were five km3. There will be many smaller events that we have yet to identify.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

Dr Brackenridge explained how they identified the ancient landslides.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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\u201cSeismic data allows us to image the subsurface. The different characteristics of rocks below the seabed allow us to reconstruct the conditions they were deposited in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see a layered and orderly seabed, then there are huge bodies of sediment that appear chaotic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can tell from the internal characteristics that these sediments have spilled down a slope in a rapid, turbulent manner. It\u2019s like an underwater avalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

The researchers say that the strong ocean current that flows through the Makassar Strait could be behind the prehistoric events and any potential submarine landslides.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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Dr Uisdean Nicholson, who led the research at Heriot-Watt University, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Makassar Strait is an important oceanic gateway. It\u2019s through there the main branch of the Indonesian Throughflow transports water – over 10 million cubic metres a second – from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current acts as a conveyor belt, transporting sediment from the Mahakam Delta and dumping it on the upper continental slope to the south, making the seabed steeper, weaker and more likely to collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe estimate the largest, tsunamigenic events – those that displace 100 km3 – occurred every 500,000 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndonesia has mitigation and early warning measures in place in different parts of the country, but not the area that would be affected by a tsunami wave generated from these landslides. This includes the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, which have a combined population of over 1.6 million people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch an event could be concentrated and amplified by Balikpapan Bay, the site selected for the new capital city of Indonesia.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur next step is to quantify the risk in this area by building various numerical models of landslide events and tsunami generation. This could help us predict a threshold size that causes dangerous tsunamis and help inform any mitigation strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also plan to visit the coastal areas of Kalimantan to look for physical evidence for historic or prehistoric tsunamis, to test the model outcomes and further improve our understanding of this hazard.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

Prof Tappin is studying the Sulawesi tsunami which struck the opposite side of the Makassar Strait in September 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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Prof Tappin said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new study on submarine landslides is important in demonstrating that the tsunami hazard in this region of Indonesia is possibly greater than previously thought, but more research is necessary to confirm this.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

Dr Nicholson recently identified ancient submarine landslides near the Falkland Islands<\/a> in a separate research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report was published in a special publication on Submarine mass movements and their consequences<\/a> by the Geological Society, London.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t

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Relative topics<\/h5>\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tasia<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgeohazards<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinternational<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlandslides<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmarine geoscience<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttsunamis<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n
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