Authors / CoAuthors
Cummins, P.
Abstract
As the world’s largest archipelagic country in Earth’s most active tectonic region, Indonesia faces a substantial earthquake and tsunami threat. Understanding this threat is a challenge because of the complex tectonic environment, the paucity of observed data and the limited historical record. Here we combine information from recent studies of the geology of Indonesia’s Banda Sea with Global Positioning System observations of crustal motion and an analysis of historical large earthquakes and tsunamis there. We show that past destructive earthquakes were not caused by the supposed megathrust of the Banda outer arc as previously thought but are due to a vast submarine normal fault system recently discovered along the Banda inner arc. Instead of being generated by coseismic seafloor displacement, we find the tsunamis were more likely caused by earthquake-triggered submarine slumping along the fault’s massive scarp, the Weber Deep. This would make the Banda detachment representative not only as a modern analogue for terranes hyper-extended by slab rollback but also for the generation of earthquakes and tsunamis by a submarine extensional fault system. Our findings suggest that low-angle normal faults in the Banda Sea generate large earthquakes, which in turn can generate tsunamis due to earthquake-triggered slumping.
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document
eCat Id
148771
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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- EARTH SCIENCES
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- Wednesday Seminar
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- earthquakes
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- tsunami
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2024-05-13T08:07:39
Creation Date
2020-07-29T00:00:00
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completed
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To promote the scientific achievements of Geoscience Australia.
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asNeeded
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geoscientificInformation
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Wednesday Seminar
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Seminar recording as part of the Geoscience Australia public talks programs
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[-44.00, -9.00, 112.00, 154.00]
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Spatial Resolution
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