Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Earthquakes and tsunamis caused by low-angle normal faulting in the Banda Sea, Indonesia

Nature Geoscience volume 13, pages 312–318 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The tectonics of slab rollback in the Banda Sea region.
Fig. 2: Crustal movement and faults in the Banda inner and outer arcs.
Fig. 3: Banda Sea earthquakes and seismic intensity modelling.
Fig. 4: Selected tsunami models of the 1852 Banda Sea event.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All of the seismic intensity observations used here are based on historical accounts available in the published literature20,21,25. Except for the newly estimated velocities in Supplementary Table 1, all of the GPS velocities are available from published sources45–48. The raw GPS data on which the new velocities in Supplementary Table 1 are based can be obtained from the Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency (BIG). The elevation data used for tsunami modelling is a combination of the Indonesian National Bathymetry (BATNAS)58 (see http://tides.big.go.id/DEMNAS/, last accessed in June 2019), a marine chart around the Banda Islands59, and SRTM-90m60.

Code availability

All of the codes used in this study have been described in published work and are available in the public domain. Tectonic block modelling was accomplished using the software TDEFNODE49, available at http://www.web.pdx.edu/mccaf/defnode.html (last accessed August 2019). The EQIAT code29 used for Bayesian inference of earthquake parameters from seismic intensity data is available at https://github.com/GeoscienceAustralia/EQIAT (last accessed August 2019). Earthquake ground-motion modelling was performed using Openquake61, available at https://github.com/gem/openquake (last accessed August 2019). Finally, the tsunami modelling used the JAGURS57 software available at https://github.com/jagurs-admin/jagurs.

References

  1. Fisher, T. & Harris, R. Reconstruction of 1852 Banda Arc megathrust earthquake and tsunami. Nat. Hazards 83, 667–689 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Liu, Z. Y.-C. & Harris, R. A. Discovery of possible mega-thrust earthquake along the Seram Trough from records of 1629 tsunami in eastern Indonesian region. Nat. Hazards 72, 1311–1328 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Løvholt, F. et al. Tsunami Risk Reduction: Are We Better Prepared Today than in 2004? Input Paper (UNISDR, 2014).

  4. Lovholt, F., Kühn, D., Bungum, H., Harbitz, C. B. & Glimsdal, S. Historical tsunamis and present tsunami hazard in eastern Indonesia and the southern Philippines. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 117, B09310 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Horspool, N. et al. A probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Indonesia. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 14, 3105–3122 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Carter, D. & Audley-Charles, M. Stratigraphical analysis of island arc–continental margin collision in eastern Indonesia. J. Geol. Soc. 132, 179–198 (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Richardson, A. & Blundell, D. Continental collision in the Banda Arc. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 106, 47–60 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Audley-Charles, M. Ocean trench blocked and obliterated by Banda forearc collision with Australian proximal continental slope. Tectonophysics 389, 65–79 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Spakman, W. & Hall, R. Surface deformation and slab–mantle interaction during Banda Arc subduction rollback. Nat. Geosci. 3, 562 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Audley-Charles, M., Carter, D. & Milsom, J. Tectonic development of eastern Indonesia in relation to Gondwanaland dispersal. Nat. Phys. Sci. 239, 35–39 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cardwell, R. K. & Isacks, B. L. Geometry of the subducted lithosphere beneath the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia from seismicity and fault plane solutions. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 83, 2825–2838 (1978).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Pownall, J., Hall, R. & Watkinson, I. Extreme extension across Seram and Ambon, eastern Indonesia: evidence for Banda slab rollback. Solid Earth 4, 277–314 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Pownall, J. M., Hall, R., Armstrong, R. A. & Forster, M. A. Earth’s youngest known ultrahigh-temperature granulites discovered on Seram, eastern Indonesia. Geology 42, 279–282 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Pownall, J. M., Hall, R. & Armstrong, R. A. Hot lherzolite exhumation, UHT migmatite formation, and acid volcanism driven by Miocene rollback of the Banda Arc, eastern Indonesia. Gondwana Res. 51, 92–117 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Pownall, J. M., Forster, M. A., Hall, R. & Watkinson, I. M. Tectonometamorphic evolution of Seram and Ambon, eastern Indonesia: insights from 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. Gondwana Res. 44, 35–53 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Pownall, J., Hall, R. & Lister, G. Rolling open Earth’s deepest forearc basin. Geology 44, 947–950 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Hall, R. Australia–SE Asia collision: plate tectonics and crustal flow. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 355, 75–109 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hamilton, W. Tectonics of the Indonesian Region 4th edn (US Government Printing Office, 1979).

  19. Bowin, C. et al. Arc–continent collision in Banda Sea region. Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 64, 868–915 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wichmann, A. Die Erdbeben des Indischen Archipels bis zum Jahre 1857 (Joahnnes Muller, 1918).

  21. Soloviev, S. & Go, C. N. Catalog of Tsunamis in Western Coast of the Pacific Ocean (Academy of Sciences, 1974).

  22. McCaffrey, R. Active tectonics of the eastern Sunda and Banda arcs. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 93, 15163–15182 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Okal, E. A. & Reymond, D. The mechanism of great Banda Sea earthquake of 1 February 1938: applying the method of preliminary determination of focal mechanism to a historical event. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 216, 1–15 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  24. NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, accessed 5 August 2019).

  25. Harris, R. & Major, J. Waves of destruction in the East Indies: the Wichmann catalogue of earthquakes and tsunami in the Indonesian region from 1538 to 1877. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 441, 9–46 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Marliyani, G., Arrowsmith, J. & Helmi, H. Evidence for multiple ground-rupturing earthquakes in the past 4,000 years along the Pasuruan Fault, East Java, Indonesia: documentation of active normal faulting in the Javan backarc. Tectonics 38, 1489–1506 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Barber, T. & Brown, K. Mud diapirism: the origin of melanges in accretionary complexes? Geol. Today 4, 89–94 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Kassi, A., Bayraktar, H., Khan, S. & Kasi, A. Recurring emergence of the mud islands on shelf of the Arabian Sea along the Makran coast of Pakistan—historical perspective using remote sensing techniques. J. Geol. Soc. India 90, 201–208 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Griffin, J., Nguyen, N., Cummins, P. & Cipta, A. Historical earthquakes of the eastern Sunda Arc: source mechanisms and intensity-based testing of Indonesia’s national seismic hazard assessment. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 109, 43–65 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Dowrick, D. & Rhoades, D. Revised models for attenuation of modified Mercalli intensity in New Zealand earthquakes. Bull. N.Z. Soc. Earthq. Eng. 38, 185–214 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Imamura, F. & Imteaz, M. Long waves in two layers: governing equations and numerical model. Sci. Tsunami Hazards 13, 3–24 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Baba, T. et al. Modeling of a dispersive tsunami caused by a submarine landslide based on detailed bathymetry of the continental slope in the Nankai trough, southwest Japan. Tectonophysics 768, 228182 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Axen, G. J. in Rheology and Deformation of the Lithosphere at Continental Margins (eds Karner, G. D. et al.) 46–91 (Columbia Univ. Press, 2004).

  34. Wernicke, B. Low-angle normal faults and seismicity: a review. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 100, 20159–20174 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Collettini, C. & Sibson, R. H. Normal faults, normal friction? Geology 29, 927–930 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Abers, G. A. Possible seismogenic shallow-dipping normal faults in the Woodlark-D’Entrecasteaux extensional province, Papua New Guinea. Geology 19, 1205–1208 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Abers, G. A., Mutter, C. Z. & Fang, J. Shallow dips of normal faults during rapid extension: earthquakes in the Woodlark-D’Entrecasteaux rift system, Papua New Guinea. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 102, 15301–15317 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Abers, G. A. Evidence for seismogenic normal faults at shallow dips in continental rifts. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 187, 305–318 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Axen, G. J. Low-angle normal fault earthquakes and triggering. Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 3693–3696 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Webber, S. et al. Progressive back-warping of a rider block atop an actively exhuming, continental low-angle normal fault. J. Struct. Geol. 20, 1039060 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  41. ten Brink, U., Lee, H., Geist, E. & Twichell, D. Assessment of tsunami hazard to the US East Coast using relationships between submarine landslides and earthquakes. Mar. Geol. 264, 65–73 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Okada, Y. Surface deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 75, 1135–1154 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Storchak, D. A. et al. The ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900–2009): introduction. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 239, 48–63 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Albini, P. et al. The global earthquake history. Earthq. Spectra 30, 607–624 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  45. Koulali, A. et al. Crustal strain partitioning and the associated earthquake hazard in the eastern Sunda-Banda Arc. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43, 1943–1949 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Stevens, C. et al. in Plate Boundary Zones Vol. 30 (eds Stein, S. & Freymueller, J. T.) 87–89 (AGU, 2002).

  47. Kreemer, C., Blewitt, G. & Klein, E. A geodetic plate motion and global strain rate model. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 15, 3849–3889 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  48. Zhao, S. A Kinematic Model of the Northeast Australian Plate Boundary Zone. MSc thesis, Australian National Univ. (2018).

  49. McCaffrey, R. Block kinematics of the Pacific–North America plate boundary in the southwestern United States from inversion of GPS, seismological, and geologic data. J. Geophys. Res. 110, B07401 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Bird, P. An updated digital model of plate boundaries. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 4, 1027 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  51. Bakun, W. H. & Wentworth, C. M. Estimating earthquake location and magnitude from seismic intensity data. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 87, 1502–1521 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Abrahamson, N., Gregor, N. & Addo, K. BC hydro ground motion prediction equations for subduction earthquakes. Earthq. Spectra 32, 23–44 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Zhao, J. Attenuation relations of strong ground motion in Japan using site classification based on predominant period. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 96, 898–913 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Boore, D. M., Stewart, J. P., Seyhan, E. & Atkinson, G. M. NGA-West2 equations for predicting PGA, PGV, and 5% damped PSA for shallow crustal earthquakes. Earthq. Spectra 30, 1057–1085 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  55. Chiou, B. S.-J. & Youngs, R. R. Update of the Chiou and Youngs NGA model for the average horizontal component of peak ground motion and response spectra. Earthq. Spectra 30, 1117–1153 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Atkinson, G. M. & Kaka, S. I. Relationships between felt intensity and instrumental ground motion in the central United States and California. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 97, 497–510 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Baba, T. et al. Parallel implementation of dispersive tsunami wave modeling with a nesting algorithm for the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. Pure Appl. Geophys. 172, 3455–3472 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Seamless Digital Elevation Model (DEM) dan Batimetri Nasional (BIG, 2018); www.tides.big.go.id/DEMNAS/

  59. Reclus, J. J. É. The Earth and Its Inhabitants: The Universal Geography Vol. XIV (Australasia) (JS Virtue & Co., 1885).

  60. Jarvis, A., Reuter, H., Nelson, A. & Guevara, E. Hole-filled SRTM for the Globe v.4 (CGIAR-CSI, 2008); http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/srtmdata/

  61. Pagani, M. et al. Openquake engine: an open hazard (and risk) software for the global earthquake model. Seismol. Res. Lett. 85, 692–702 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to J. Dolan for very helpful comments. We thank Indonesia’s Geospatial Information Agency for making available the Indonesian National Bathymetry grid and the data from its continuous GPS network. We also thank T. Baba for teaching us how to use the JAGURS tsunami modelling software. J.M.P. was funded by Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship DE160100128 and I.R.P. by an Australian Awards scholarship and partially by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Bridge Fellowship awarded to P.R.C. We also thank TGS and GeoData Ventures and R. Hall for providing the multibeam data used to derive the bathymetry image in Fig. 1. P.R.C. and J.D.G. publish with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Phil R. Cummins, Ignatius R. Pranantyo, Jonathan M. Pownall & Siyuan Zhao

  2. Global Geophysics Research Group, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia

    Phil R. Cummins

  3. Community Safety Branch, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Phil R. Cummins & Jonathan D. Griffin

  4. Department of Geography, Geology, and Environment, University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Jonathan M. Pownall

  5. Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Jonathan D. Griffin

  6. Geodesy Research Group, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia

    Irwan Meilano

Authors
  1. Phil R. Cummins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ignatius R. Pranantyo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jonathan M. Pownall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jonathan D. Griffin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Irwan Meilano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Siyuan Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

P.R.C. led the writing of the paper, undertook the ground-motion modelling and supervised the analysis of historical accounts, the tsunami modelling and tectonic block modelling of the GPS data. I.R.P. conducted the tsunami modelling and analysis of historical accounts. J.M.P. provided the analysis of geologic evidence for slab rollback and of the evidence for slumping in the bathymetry data. J.D.G. undertook the Bayesian analysis of the historical intensity observations. I.M. analysed the raw GPS position data to determine crustal velocities. S.Z. conducted the tectonic-block-motion analysis of the GPS observations.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phil R. Cummins.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Primary Handling Editors: Tamara Goldin; Rebecca Neely.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–3 and Tables 1 and 2.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cummins, P.R., Pranantyo, I.R., Pownall, J.M. et al. Earthquakes and tsunamis caused by low-angle normal faulting in the Banda Sea, Indonesia. Nat. Geosci. 13, 312–318 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0545-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0545-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing