Field surveys of the December 2018 Anak Krakatau volcano tsunami
Date: 3 – 11 January 2020
Location: South coast of Sunda Strait, Indonesia
The Anak Krakatau tsunami occurred on 22 December 2018 in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia which left a death toll of approximately 450 people. The tsunami was generated by the flank collapse of the Anak Krakatau volcano mutation. See Figure 1 for the location and mechanism of this tsunami. The project team visited the area in the period 3-11 January 2020 to survey the tsunami damage to coastal areas and record the distribution of tsunami runup heights and inundation along the coasts. Figures 2-8 show tsunami damage at different locations along the coast and the project team. A detailed report of the survey is published in Heidarzadeh et al. (2020) (Pure and Applied Geophysics, volume 177, pages 4577–4595):
Figure 1- a) The location of the 22 December 2018 Anak Krakatau volcano tsunami (red star) and the tide gauge stations (pink triangles). The dashed lines are tsunami travel times (TTT) in hours, with 15-min intervals. b) Sketch showing the collapse of the Anak Krakatau Volcano on 22 December 2018 where the top 228 m of the volcano collapsed into the sea. c) Illustration of damage made by the 22 December 2018 Anak Krakatau volcano tsunami in Labuan from the field surveys of this research.
Figure 2- a) Survey team members interviewing local people along the tsunami-stricken coastal. b) The PI (Dr Heidarzadeh) meeting with the authorities of a primary school in the south of the Sunda Strait coast. c) The PI (Dr Heidarzadeh) showing a tsunami watermark in a damaged house. d) Project team members collecting tsunami deposit samples. e) A damaged house due to the December 2018 Anak Krakatau tsunami. f) A team member showing a tsunami watermark in a damaged house.