Journal
LANDSLIDES
Volume 17, Issue 9, Pages 2085-2098Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s10346-020-01417-3
Keywords
Palu earthquake; Palu tsunami; Coastal landslides; Bathymetry; Survey
Funding
- National University of Singapore
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In this paper, we investigate the sources for Palu Bay tsunamis, which occurred in September 2018 after a M-w 7.5 earthquake struck on a strike-slip fault. Previous land-based field studies have identified numerous coastal landslides as possible sources for tsunami generation. Here, we present new post-earthquake bathymetry survey data in the bay. We compare the new very detailed nearshore bathymetry with the pre-earthquake data so as to quantify the magnitudes and configurations of coastal landslides and the characteristics of landslide-generated waves. We perform numerical simulations of tsunami propagation, isolating the coastal landslides as the only sources. The results show that, although the landslide-generated waves characteristically have shorter periods than the observed tsunami waves, the combination of the waves is able to produce long waves comparable with those observed, due to the ringing effects of the trapped waves inside the bay. Therefore, we conclude that landslide-generated waves played a significant role in the tsunamis in Palu Bay. Nevertheless, it is likely that the tsunamis were caused by a combination of tectonic and landslide sources.
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