The Flores Island tsunamis

Abstract

On December 12, 1992, at 5:30 A.M. GMT, an earthquake of magnitude Ms 7.5 struck the eastern region of Flores Island, Indonesia (Figure 1), a volcanic island located just at the transition between the Sunda and Banda Island arc systems. The local newspaper reported that 25‐m high tsunamis struck the town of Maumere, causing substantial casualties and property damage. On December 16, television reports broadcast in Japan via satellite reported that 1000 people had been killed in Maumere and twothirds of the population of Babi Island had been swept away by the tsunamis. The current toll of the Flores earthquake is 2080 deaths and 2144 injuries, approximately 50% of which are attributed to the tsunamis. A tsunami survey plan was initiated within 3 days of the earthquake, and a cooperative international survey team was formed with four scientists from Indonesia, nine from Japan, three from the United States, one from the United Kingdom, and one from Korea.