By Ian N. Robertson, Contributing Editors: Tracy Kijewski-Correa, David Prevatt, and David Roueche.
October 2018, StEER: Structural Engineering Extreme Event Reconnaissance Network
On September 28, 2018, at 17:02 local time (10:02 UTC), a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred with an epicenter 78km North of Palu, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, at a depth of 10 km. The earthquake was caused by movement on a strike-slip fault known as the Palu-Koro Fault. As of writing this report the death toll is estimated to be over 1200 due to both earthquake and tsunami and expected to rise as the search and rescue efforts continue.
The city of Palu, with a population of 336,000 based on a 2010 census, is located in an alluvial valley at the end of the narrow Palu Bay. Preliminary tsunami modeling reported by CATnews indicates that the bathymetry of the Palu Bay increased the tsunami wave amplitude significantly compared with other coastlines outside of the bay.
A number of multi-story reinforced concrete buildings collapsed during the earthquake. Most notable was the eight-story Roa-Roa Hotel which collapsed resulting in multiple deaths. A reinforced concrete shopping center in Palu experienced partial collapse during the earthquake and a number of mosques also suffered severe damage or even collapse.
Read the Report: Palu Earthquake and Tsunami, Suwalesi, Indonesia Preliminary Virtual Assesment Team (PVAT) Report (4.7 MB PDF)
