A 15 Year Slow-Slip Event on the Sunda Megathrust Offshore Sumatra

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A 15 Year Slow-Slip Event on the Sunda Megathrust Offshore Sumatra Geophysical Research Letters RESEARCH LETTER A 15 year slow-slip event on the Sunda 10.1002/2015GL064928 megathrust offshore Sumatra Key Points: 1 1 2, 3 1 4 • Corals offshore Sumatra reveal Louisa L. H. Tsang , Aron J. Meltzner , Belle Philibosian , Emma M. Hill , Jeffrey T. Freymueller , a 15 year-long interseismic and Kerry Sieh1 displacement reversal from 1966 to 1981 1Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2Tectonics Observatory, Division of • A 15 year-long SSE is the most likely 3 explanation for the coral observations Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, Columbia University, 4 • Our results suggest that the SSE New York, New York, USA, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA occurred under the Banyak Islands Abstract In the Banyak Islands of Sumatra, coral microatoll records reveal a 15 year-long reversal of Supporting Information: interseismic vertical displacement from subsidence to uplift between 1966 and 1981. To explain these • Texts S1–S5 • Figures S1–S14 coral observations, we test four hypotheses, including regional sea level changes and various tectonic • Tables S1–S6 mechanisms. Our results show that the coral observations likely reflect a 15 year-long slow-slip event (SSE) on the Sunda megathrust. This long-duration SSE exceeds the duration of previously reported SSEs Correspondence to: and demonstrates the importance of multidecade geodetic records in illuminating the full spectrum of E. M. Hill, megathrust slip behavior at subduction zones. [email protected] Citation: Tsang, L. L. H., A. J. Meltzner, B. Philibosian, E. M. Hill, 1. Introduction J. T. Freymueller, and K. Sieh (2015), A 15 year slow-slip “Silent earthquakes,” or slow-slip events (SSEs), release strain on tectonic faults at slip rates faster than plate event on the Sunda megathrust rates but slowly enough that seismic shaking is not generated. They are manifested along subduction zone offshore Sumatra, Geophys. megathrusts either as preseismic slip prior to large earthquakes, afterslip following large earthquakes, or slip Res. Lett., 42, 6630–6638, doi:10.1002/2015GL064928. during the interseismic period of the earthquake cycle [Schwartz and Rokosky, 2007]. In this study, we use the term SSE to refer only to the last of these three manifestations. Received 19 JUN 2015 SSEs are visible in geodetic time series as reversals of displacements associated with a locked fault inter- Accepted 24 JUL 2015 Accepted article online 31 JUL 2015 face. SSEs have been observed to typically last from a few days [e.g., Douglas et al., 2005] to a few months Published online 22 AUG 2015 [e.g., Hirose et al., 1999], but longer-duration SSEs lasting several years have also been detected: ∼2–3 years Corrected 5 OCT 2015 [Ohta et al., 2006], ∼4 years [Fu and Freymueller, 2013], ∼5 years [Miyazaki et al., 2006; Ochi and Kato, 2013; Ohta et al., 2004; Ozawa et al., 2002], and ∼10 years [Li et al., 2014]. In order to detect SSEs of longer dura- This article was corrected on 5 OCT tion and thus illuminate the full temporal spectrum of megathrust slip behavior, multidecade geodetic 2015. See the end of the full text for details. records are required. However, existing geodetic networks have not been operating long enough to detect such events. One way to extend our geodetic observations is to take advantage of paleogeodetic data preserved in the geological record. For example, coral microatolls along the Sumatran subduction zone provide high-resolution records of vertical deformation over the past several centuries [e.g., Zachariasen et al., 2000; Meltzner et al., 2010; Philibosian et al., 2014]. Using these data, Meltzner et al. [2015] reconstructed interseismic uplift and subsidence at multiple sites over the past three centuries. At one site on Bangkaru Island, in the Banyak Islands (site PBK, Figure 1), coral records show an abruptly reversed displacement trend from inter- seismic subsidence to interseismic uplift between 1966 and 1981 (Figures 1b–1d); an SSE on the underlying megathrust is a potential explanation. ©2015. The Authors. This is an open access article under the In this paper we extend the work of Meltzner et al. [2015] to examine the potential physical processes that can terms of the Creative Commons explain the coral observations. We show that indeed, they likely reflect a very long duration SSE on the Sunda Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and megathrust, where, to date, no SSEs other than afterslip following major earthquakes have been recorded. We distribution in any medium, provided include previously unpublished coral observations for the Simeulue-Nias section of the megathrust, including the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no additional sites in the Banyak Islands and neighboring islands of Simeulue and Nias. These added observations modifications or adaptations are made. allow us to model the possible locations and sizes of this SSE, both with improved constraints. TSANG ET AL. A 15 YEAR SSE ON THE SUNDA MEGATHRUST 6630 Geophysical Research Letters 10.1002/2015GL064928 Figure 1. (a) The Banyak Islands section was estimated to have experienced less coseismic slip than elsewhere along strike during the 2005 Mw 8.6 Nias rupture [Konca et al., 2007]. Part of this section ruptured during the 2010 Mw 7.8 Banyak Islands earthquake (source model from the U.S. Geological Survey: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ eventpage/usp000hat0#scientific_finitefault). Mw 6+ earthquakes from the National Earthquake Information Center catalog are plotted. (b–d) Spatiotemporal distribution of vertical displacement rates recorded by coral microatolls in the Simeulue-Nias section. From 1966 to 1981, coral microatolls on the Banyak Islands reversed their sense of displacement from interseismic subsidence to interseismic uplift. Black lines: slab contours at 20 km depth intervals from Slab 1.0 [Hayes et al., 2012]. 2. Displacement Rate Changes Recorded by Corals We reconstructed interseismic uplift histories from coral microatolls at six sites along the Simeulue-Nias section of the Sunda megathrust (Figure 1). Microatolls are coral colonies that grow upward to a limit near mean low water springs, and their upper surfaces can track changes in relative sea level (RSL) over time [Scoffin et al., 1978; Taylor et al., 1987; Zachariasen et al., 2000; Meltzner et al., 2010]. Microatoll morphologies form because prolonged subaerial exposure at times of extreme low water limits the highest level to which the coral colonies can grow [Briggs et al., 2006; Meltzner et al., 2010; Meltzner and Woodroffe, 2015]. Flat-topped microatolls record RSL stability; colonies that rise radially outward toward their perimeter reflect rising RSL during their decades of growth, and colonies with progressively lower diedowns as they grow outward reflect gradually falling RSL. Changes in RSL are themselves the combined effect of changes in land level and changes in local absolute sea level. As islands and their fringing reefs subside or rise in response to tectonic elastic strain accumulation and release, microatolls record changes in RSL. Because these corals’ skeletons have annual growth bands, we can precisely calculate rates of change in RSL, when those changes are gradual. The coral microatolls were slabbed, X-rayed, and analyzed following the methods described by Meltzner et al., [2010, 2012] and Meltzner and Woodroffe [2015]. The interpreted coral cross sections and corresponding time series for the relevant corals are presented in Figures S1–S6 and Table S1 in the supporting information. The displacement rates at each site (and their 2 level of uncertainties) over various time periods are shown in Figures 1b–1d. Three sites (PBK, PLM, and PUB) define a trench-normal transect through the Banyak Islands, and three additional sites are located near the southeastern tip of Simeulue (LBJ) and the northern tip of Nias (MZL and SBA). TSANG ET AL. A 15 YEAR SSE ON THE SUNDA MEGATHRUST 6631 Geophysical Research Letters 10.1002/2015GL064928 The RSL history of site PBK is particularly well resolved as a result of various idiosyncrasies (as discussed by Meltzner et al. [2015]). Modern microatoll PBK-4 (Figure S1) started growing in the 1950s and first recorded a diedown in 1956. The first few diedowns were successively higher on the coral, but around 1966 there was an abrupt change, and for ∼15 years successive diedowns were lower and lower. Around 1981, the trend reversed again, and successive diedowns were higher. After correcting for an assumed eustatic sea level rise of 2 mm/yr, Meltzner et al. [2015] estimated tectonic deformation rates at PBK-4 of −2.7±3.4 mm/yr (subsidence) from the beginning of the record in 1956 until 1966, +7.8±2.1 mm/yr (uplift) from 1966 to 1981, and −2.4±0.8 mm/yr (subsidence) from 1981 until coseismic uplift in 2005 (Table S1). Although rates of sea level change are not well known in the eastern Indian Ocean in the decades prior to 1992, there is no compelling evidence that they differed markedly from the global average of +2 ± 1 mm/yr. In this paper, we adopt the rates (and correction) of Meltzner et al. [2015], but we explore alternatives in the supporting information (Text S2). The abruptness of each rate change at site PBK is well constrained. Meltzner et al. [2015] estimate that they can resolve the timing of rate changes at PBK-4 to within ±2 years of 1966 and 1981, respectively. Hence, these changes must have been rapid; each transition from the initial rate to the subsequent rate occurred over no more than 2 to 4 years, but it may have occurred over a period of a few months or even less. Because of a combination of greater erosion and less frequent diedowns on all the other corals, the rates at the other sites are not as well constrained.
Recommended publications
  • A Risk-Targeted Regional Earthquake Model for South-East Asia
    Proceedings of the Tenth Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering Building an Earthquake-Resilient Pacific 6-8 November 2015, Sydney, Australia A risk-targeted Regional Earthquake Model for South-East Asia J. Woessner Risk Management Solutions Inc., Zurich, Switzerland. M. Nyst, & E. Seyhan Risk Management Solutions Inc., Newark, California, USA . ABSTRACT: The last decade has shown the social and economic vulnerability of countries in South-East Asia to earthquake hazard and risk. While many disaster mitigation programs to improve societal earthquake resilience are under way focusing on saving lives and livelihoods, the risk management sector is challenged to model economic consequences. We present the hazard component suitable for a South-East Asia earthquake risk model covering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indochine countries. The consistent regional model builds upon refined modelling approaches for 1) background seismicity, i.e. earthquakes not occurring on mapped fault structures, 2) seismic activity from geologic and geodetic data on crustal faults and 3) along the interface of subduction zones. We elaborate on building a self-consistent rate model for crustal fault systems (e.g. Sumatra fault zone, Philippine fault zone) as well as the subduction zone, showcase its characteristics and combine this with an up-to-date ground motion model. We aim to present insights on the impact of the different hazard components on the final risk model. 1 INTRODUCTION Over the past decades, the societies of many countries in Southeast Asia including mainland and mari- time countries have suffered several severe earthquake catastrophes in terms of human casualties, loss of livelihoods and economic losses. The 2004 M9.0 Andaman-Sumatra Earthquake and the associated tsunami caused more than 225,000 fatalities, generating significant attention internationally due to the scale of its impact across the Indian Ocean.
    [Show full text]
  • Tsunamigenic Earthquakes
    Fifteen Years of (Major to Great) Tsunamigenic Earthquakes F Romano, S Lorito, and A Piatanesi, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma, Italy T Lay, Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Tsunamis, Seismically Induced 1 Fifteen Years of Major to Great Tsunamigenic Earthquakes 3 The Study of Tsunamigenic Earthquakes 3 Megathrust Tsunamigenic Earthquakes 4 The Sunda 2004–10 Sequence in the Indian Ocean 4 Peru 2007 5 Maule 2010 5 Tohoku 2011 5 Santa Cruz 2013 6 Iquique 2014 6 Illapel 2015 6 Tsunamigenic Doublets 7 Kurils 2006–07 7 Samoa 2009 7 Tsunami Earthquakes 7 Java 2006 8 Mentawai 2010 8 Recent Special Cases 8 Sumatra 2012 8 Solomon 2007 8 Haida Gwaii 2012 9 Kaikoura 2016 9 Mexico 2017 9 Palu 2018 9 Conclusions 10 References 10 Further Reading 12 Tsunamis, Seismically Induced Tsunamis are a series of long gravity waves generated by the displacement of a significant volume of water that propagating in the sea, under the action of the gravity force, returns in its original equilibrium position. Differently from the common wind waves, tsunamis are characterized by large wavelengths (ranging from tens to hundreds of km) and long periods (ranging from minutes to hours). Several natural phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, the rapid change of atmospheric pressure (meteotsunami), or asteroids impacts can be the source of a tsunami; among these, the most frequent is represented by the earthquakes. Most of the very tsunamigenic earthquakes occur nearby the Earth convergent boundaries (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Waves of Destruction in the East Indies: the Wichmann Catalogue of Earthquakes and Tsunami in the Indonesian Region from 1538 to 1877
    Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on May 24, 2016 Waves of destruction in the East Indies: the Wichmann catalogue of earthquakes and tsunami in the Indonesian region from 1538 to 1877 RON HARRIS1* & JONATHAN MAJOR1,2 1Department of Geological Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602–4606, USA 2Present address: Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78758, USA *Corresponding author (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: The two volumes of Arthur Wichmann’s Die Erdbeben Des Indischen Archipels [The Earthquakes of the Indian Archipelago] (1918 and 1922) document 61 regional earthquakes and 36 tsunamis between 1538 and 1877 in the Indonesian region. The largest and best documented are the events of 1770 and 1859 in the Molucca Sea region, of 1629, 1774 and 1852 in the Banda Sea region, the 1820 event in Makassar, the 1857 event in Dili, Timor, the 1815 event in Bali and Lom- bok, the events of 1699, 1771, 1780, 1815, 1848 and 1852 in Java, and the events of 1797, 1818, 1833 and 1861 in Sumatra. Most of these events caused damage over a broad region, and are asso- ciated with years of temporal and spatial clustering of earthquakes. The earthquakes left many cit- ies in ‘rubble heaps’. Some events spawned tsunamis with run-up heights .15 m that swept many coastal villages away. 2004 marked the recurrence of some of these events in western Indonesia. However, there has not been a major shallow earthquake (M ≥ 8) in Java and eastern Indonesia for the past 160 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Tsunami Inundation Modeling for Western Sumatra
    Tsunami inundation modeling for western Sumatra Jose´ C. Borrero*†‡, Kerry Sieh§, Mohamed Chlieh§, and Costas E. Synolakis*¶ *Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2531; †ASR Limited, Marine Consulting and Research, 1 Wainui Road, Raglan, New Zealand; §Tectonics Observatory 100-23, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; and ¶Laboratory of Natural Hazards and Coastal Engineering, Technical University of Crete, 73100 Chanea, Greece Edited by Barbara A. Romanowicz, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved October 24, 2006 (received for review May 17, 2006) A long section of the Sunda megathrust south of the great tsunami- settlements. We then investigate tsunamis produced by four genic earthquakes of 2004 and 2005 is well advanced in its seismic plausible future ruptures of the Mentawai section of the mega- cycle and a plausible candidate for rupture in the next few decades. thrust. Each of these scenarios spans the entire 750-km length of Our computations of tsunami propagation and inundation yield the currently locked patch south of the Equator, as deduced by model flow depths and inundations consistent with sparse historical Global Positioning System measurements, observations of sub- accounts for the last great earthquakes there, in 1797 and 1833. siding corals on the islands and patterns of background seismicity Numerical model results from plausible future ruptures produce flow (Fig. 1) (5, 9). Thus, they represent what we consider to be the depths of several meters and inundation up to several kilometers longest plausible future ruptures. All of these scenarios are inland near the most populous coastal cities.
    [Show full text]
  • Java and Sumatra Segments of the Sunda Trench: Geomorphology and Geophysical Settings Analysed and Visualized by GMT Polina Lemenkova
    Java and Sumatra Segments of the Sunda Trench: Geomorphology and Geophysical Settings Analysed and Visualized by GMT Polina Lemenkova To cite this version: Polina Lemenkova. Java and Sumatra Segments of the Sunda Trench: Geomorphology and Geophys- ical Settings Analysed and Visualized by GMT. Glasnik Srpskog Geografskog Drustva, 2021, 100 (2), pp.1-23. 10.2298/GSGD2002001L. hal-03093633 HAL Id: hal-03093633 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03093633 Submitted on 4 Jan 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License ГЛАСНИК Српског географског друштва 100(2) 1 – 23 BULLETIN OF THE SERBIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------- Original scientific paper UDC 551.4(267) https://doi.org/10.2298/GSGD2002001L Received: October 07, 2020 Corrected: November 27, 2020 Accepted: December 09, 2020 Polina Lemenkova1* * Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Department of Natural Disasters, Anthropogenic Hazards and Seismicity of the Earth, Laboratory of Regional Geophysics and Natural Disasters, Moscow, Russian Federation JAVA AND SUMATRA SEGMENTS OF THE SUNDA TRENCH: GEOMORPHOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICAL SETTINGS ANALYSED AND VISUALIZED BY GMT Abstract: The paper discusses the geomorphology of the Sunda Trench, an oceanic trench located in the eastern Indian Ocean along the Sumatra and Java Islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
    [Show full text]
  • Stress, Rigidity and Sediment Strength Control Megathrust Earthquake and Tsunami Dynamics
    Stress, rigidity and sediment strength control megathrust earthquake and tsunami dynamics Thomas Ulrich,1∗ Alice-Agnes Gabriel,1 Elizabeth H. Madden2 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat¨ Munchen,¨ Munich, Germany 2 Observatorio´ Sismologico,´ Instituto de Geociencias,ˆ Universidade de Bras´ılia, Bras´ılia, Brazil ∗E-mail: [email protected] July 31, 2020 Megathrust faults host the largest earthquakes on Earth which can trigger cascading hazards such as devastating tsunamis. Determining characteristics that control subduction zone earth- quake and tsunami dynamics is critical to mitigate megathrust hazards, but is impeded by struc- tural complexity, large spatio-temporal scales, and scarce or asymmetric instrumental cover- age. Here we show that tsunamigenesis and earthquake dynamics are controlled by along-arc variability in regional tectonic stresses together with depth-dependent variations in rigidity and yield strength of near-fault sediments. We aim to identify dominant regional factors controlling megathrust hazards. To this end, we demonstrate how to unify and verify the required initial conditions for geometrically complex, multi-physics earthquake-tsunami modeling from inter- disciplinary geophysical observations. We present large-scale computational models of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami that reconcile near- and far-field seis- mic, geodetic, geological, and tsunami observations and reveal tsunamigenic trade-offs between slip to the trench, splay faulting, and bulk yielding of the accretionary wedge. Our computa- tional capabilities render possible the incorporation of present and emerging high-resolution 1 observations into dynamic-rupture-tsunami models. Our findings highlight the importance of regional-scale structural heterogeneity to decipher megathrust hazards.
    [Show full text]
  • APRU/AEARU Research Symposium 2007 “Earthquake Hazards Around the Pacific Rim”
    APRU/AEARU Research Symposium 2007 “Earthquake Hazards around the Pacific Rim” Date and Venue June 21-22 2007, Hotel Nikko Jakarta, Diamond Room 1&2, Jakarta, Indonesia Host University The University of Tokyo and the University of Indonesia Purpose of activity This symposium brought together leading researchers of APRU/AEARU member universities in the field of seismology, volcanology, civil engineering, and related social sciences, in order to understand the mechanism of natural disasters due to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, find better way of mitigating these disasters and developing sustainable societies against them. We needed to discuss scientific aspects on the restoration from giant earthquakes and tsunamis, particularly from that generated in Indian Ocean in 2004, in order to integrate effective strategies for the future establishment of earthquake-and tsunami-proof cities around the Indian Ocean. Thus challenging the participants to think about recent developments, new results, and new ideas in these fields, this symposium aimed to stimulate them to learn about diversity of mechanism of these geological hazards and to find ways of building sustainable societies against natural disasters. This symposium also gave us an opportunity to consider new directions in their respective research activities and disaster-prevention administration. Program of activity Please see the following pages Number of participants attended & papers submitted Participants: 149 Keynote Lectures: 2 Oral Presentations: 37 Poster Presentations: 19 Comments - The symposium recorded 149 participants from 8 countries. The number of participants may be the largest among the three symposia. - Participants included not only academic researchers but also governmental officials and community representatives. - The session program included two keynote lectures, 37 oral presentations and 19 poster presentations from various research fields of natural science, civil engineering and social science.
    [Show full text]
  • Stress Changes Along the Sunda Trench Following the 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman and 28 March 2005 Nias Earthquakes Fred F
    GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 33, L06309, doi:10.1029/2005GL024558, 2006 Stress changes along the Sunda trench following the 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman and 28 March 2005 Nias earthquakes Fred F. Pollitz,1 Paramesh Banerjee,2 Roland Bu¨rgmann,3 Manabu Hashimoto,4 and Nithiwatthn Choosakul5 Received 9 September 2005; revised 29 December 2005; accepted 6 January 2006; published 23 March 2006. [1] The 26 December 2004 Mw = 9.2 and 28 March 2005 region south of the 28 March 2005 event is presently Mw = 8.7 earthquakes on the Sumatra megathrust altered the stressed highly enough to produce 1833-type events, and state of stress over a large region surrounding the that the subduction interface may therefore be sensitive to earthquakes. We evaluate the stress changes associated small stress perturbations. with coseismic and postseismic deformation following these [3] Each earthquake alters the state of stress in its two large events, focusing on postseismic deformation that is surroundings, and it is natural to investigate the stress driven by viscoelastic relaxation of a low-viscosity changes associated with the 26 December 2004 and asthenosphere. Under Coulomb failure stress (CFS) theory, 28 March 2005 events in order to evaluate the potential the December 2004 event increased CFS on the future for future earthquake triggering along the remaining Sumatra- hypocentral zone of the March 2005 event by about Sunda megathrust [McCloskey et al., 2005]. In the context of 0.25 bar, with little or no contribution from viscous Coulomb failure stress theory [Harris, 1998; Stein, 1999], relaxation. Coseismic stresses around the rupture zones of Nalbant et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Rupture and Variable Coupling Behavior of the Mentawai Segment of the Sunda Megathrust During the Supercycle Culmination of 1797
    PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth RESEARCH ARTICLE Ruptureandvariablecouplingbehavior 10.1002/2014JB011200 of the Mentawai segment of the Sunda Key Points: megathrust during the supercycle • The 1797/1833 Mentawai earthquakes were much larger than the culmination of 1797 to 1833 2007 earthquakes • The interseismic coupling pattern Belle Philibosian1,2, Kerry Sieh3, Jean-Philippe Avouac1, Danny H. Natawidjaja4, Hong-Wei Chiang5,6, fi changed signi cantly after 1797 5 1,7 5 8 • Heterogeneity of frictional properties Chung-Che Wu , Hugo Perfettini , Chuan-Chou Shen , Mudrik R. Daryono , 4 may cause the “supercycle” behavior and Bambang W. Suwargadi 1Tectonics Observatory, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Supporting Information: California, USA, 2Now at Équipe de Tectonique et Mécanique de la Lithosphère, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, • Readme 3 4 • Table S1 and Figures S1–S37 France, Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore, Research Center for Geotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), Kampus LIPI Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia, 5High-Precision Mass Correspondence to: Spectrometry and Environment Change Laboratory, Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, B. Philibosian, 6Now at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore, 7Now at IRD/ISTerre, [email protected] Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, 8Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia Citation: We refer to periods of subduction strain accumulation beneath the Mentawai Islands, Sumatra, Philibosian, B., K. Sieh, J.-P. Avouac, Abstract D. H. Natawidjaja, H.-W. Chiang, C.-C. Wu, as “supercycles,” because each culminates in a series of partial ruptures of the megathrust in its final decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Tsunami Hazard Analysis of Future Megathrust Sumatra Earthquakes in Padang, Indonesia Using Stochastic Tsunami Simulation
    ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 23 December 2016 doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2016.00033 Tsunami Hazard Analysis of Future Megathrust Sumatra Earthquakes in Padang, Indonesia Using Stochastic Tsunami Simulation Ario Muhammad1,2*, Katsuichiro Goda1 and Nicholas Alexander1 1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, 2 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Narotama, Surabaya, Indonesia This study assesses the tsunami hazard potential in Padang, Indonesia probabilistically using a novel stochastic tsunami simulation method. The stochastic tsunami simulation is conducted by generating multiple earthquake source models for a given earthquake Edited by: Nikos D. Lagaros, scenario, which are used as input to run Monte Carlo tsunami simulation. Multiple National Technical University of earthquake source models for three magnitude scenarios, i.e., Mw 8.5, Mw 8.75, and Athens, Greece Mw 9.0, are generated using new scaling relationships of earthquake source parameters Reviewed by: developed from an extensive set of 226 finite-fault models. In the stochastic tsunami Filippos Vallianatos, Technological Educational Institute of simulation, the effect of incorporating and neglecting the prediction errors of earthquake Crete, Greece source parameters is investigated. In total, 600 source models are generated to assess David De Leon, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de the uncertainty of tsunami wave characteristics and maximum tsunami wave height México (UAEM), Mexico profiles along coastal line of Padang. The results highlight
    [Show full text]
  • Tsunami Risk to Indonesia
    CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FACT SHEET: Tsunami Risk to Indonesia BLUF - Implications for PACOM Indian Ocean Tsunami • Indonesia is one of UN OCHA’s five priority countries in On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake triggered a devastating Asia highly vulnerable to large-scale natural disasters. tsunami that killed nearly 230,000 people in 14 countries around the • Located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of Indian Ocean. Of those, 130,000 were from Indonesia’s westernmost Aceh the most seismically active regions in the world, and the Province. The earthquake originated within the Sunda megathrust, located source of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. off the northern Sumatra coast, rupturing a segment 1,600 km long that had lain dormant for one thousand years. • Indonesia has extensive capabilities in disaster preparedness and response, responding to nearly 300 major natural disasters annually over the last 30 years. The 2004 tsunami was a major turning point for the Government of Indonesia. Following the event, the country enacted legislation on disaster • Nonetheless, Indonesia remains highly vulnerable to management in 2007, and the National Disaster Management Agency future earthquakes and tsunamis (see seismic risk below). (BNBP) was established a year later. BNPB’s budget has grown 500% between 2010 and 2014. Fast Facts The U.S. Department of Defense, in support of the U.S. Agency for • Capital: Jakarta International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (the lead • Population: 260,580,739 (July 2017 est.) federal agency for the U.S. in overseas disasters), established Operation • Land Area: 1,811,569 km2 (three times the size of Texas) Unified Assistance, led by Combined Support Force 536.
    [Show full text]
  • Deformation and Slip Along the Sunda Megathrust in the Great 2005 Nias-Simeulue Earthquake
    RESEARCH ARTICLES exposes their highest corallites to the atmo- Deformation and Slip Along the sphere during lowest tides. This subaerial ex- posure kills the uppermost corallites in the Sunda Megathrust in the Great 2005 colony, thus restricting future upward growth. Hence the coral heads provide an opportunity to measure the difference between the highest Nias-Simeulue Earthquake level of survival (HLS) formed just before and 1 1 1 2 1 that formed just after a large uplift event (4, 6) Richard W. Briggs, * Kerry Sieh, Aron J. Meltzner, Danny Natawidjaja, John Galetzka, and even to extract interseismic histories of Bambang Suwargadi,2 Ya-ju Hsu,1 Mark Simons,1 Nugroho Hananto,2 Imam Suprihanto,3 2 1 4 4 vertical deformation (7, 8). Dudi Prayudi, Jean-Philippe Avouac, Linette Prawirodirdjo, Yehuda Bock When coseismic uplift occurs, those portions of the microatoll colony raised above lowest Seismic rupture produced spectacular tectonic deformation above a 400-kilometer strip of the tides die. But if lower parts of the coral head are Sunda megathrust, offshore northern Sumatra, in March 2005. Measurements from coral still below lowest tides, its uppermost living microatolls and Global Positioning System stations reveal trench-parallel belts of uplift up to tissues demarcate a new, post-earthquake HLS 3 meters high on the outer-arc islands above the rupture and a 1-meter-deep subsidence trough (4) (Figs. 2A and 3A). Most of our uplift mea- farther from the trench. Surface deformation reflects more than 11 meters of fault slip under the surements are derived from the difference be- islands and a pronounced lessening of slip trenchward.
    [Show full text]