Widespread ground deformation over the Palu Basin caused by the 2018 Sulawesi, Indonesia Earthquake

Authour:
Kazuo KONAGAI¹, Ryoichi FURUTA², Takashi KIYOTA³

1. Fellow of JSCE, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo
2. Member of JSCE, Group Leader, Social Infrastructure Group, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan
3. Member of JSCE, Associate Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo

Key Facts

• Hazard Type: Earthquake
• Date of disaster: Sept. 28th, 2018
• Location of Survey: Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia
• Date of the field survey: Not Applicable
• Survey tools: Digital Terrain Models, InSAR

Key findings:

1. Pre and Post-earthquake Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) covering Palu Basin suggested that the entire stretch of the basin, mainly west of the irrigation canal, seemed to have deformed, not to mention the large flow slide sites.
2. Line-of-sight (LOS) deformations over the Palu Basin obtained from ALOS 2/PALSAR 2 at two different days after the earthquake (October 12, 2018, and January 4, 2019) showed that the flat land has slowly and steadily been deforming over the three months.

Key Words: 2018 Sulawesi Earthquake, long-lasting ground displacement buildup, lateral slides