Source reconstruction of the 1969 Majene, Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami: A preliminary study

Abstract

© Copyright 2021 The Author(s). We studied the February 23rd, 1969 M7.0 Majene, Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami. It was followed by tsunami reported at five locations. At least 64 people were killed and severe damage on infrastructures were reported in Majene region. Based on damage data, we estimated that the maximum intensity of the earthquake was MMI VIII. Focal mechanisms, derived using first motion polarity analysis, indicated that the earthquake had a thrust mechanism. Furthermore, we built hypothetical earthquake scenarios based on a rectangular fault plane of 40 km × 20 km with a homogeneous slip model of 1.5 m. We run the Open Quake and the JAGURS code to validate the macroseismic and tsunami observation data, respectively. Our best-fitted earthquake model generates maximum intensity of 8+ which is in line with the reported macroseismic data. However, the maximum simulated tsunami height from all scenario earthquakes is 2.25 m which is smaller than the 4 m tsunami height observed at Pelattoang. The possibility of contribution of another mechanism to tsunami generation requires further investigation.