The 1989 West Papua earthquake struck Papua,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

– then Irian Jaya province – on August 1 with a moment magnitude of 6.0 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''). Around 120 people were killed, mainly due to landslides and mudslides.

Details and relief

The West Papua earthquake struck at 9:17 local time and measured 5.7 and 6.0 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

. Its epicenter was located south of

Jayapura Jayapura (formerly Dutch: ''Hollandia'') is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is situated on the northern coast of New Guinea island and covers an area of . The city borders the Pacific Ocean and Yos Sudarso ...

; the earthquake reached as far as Wamena. There were multiple

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

s. The earthquake killed 120 people and left 120 injured; all of the dead were recovered from the villages of Holuon, Pasema, and Soba. Many of these deaths and injuries derived from

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

s that covered two villages and disrupted sections of the Baliem River, practically flooding three villages and depositing tons of mud. One of these landslides was tall; there were eleven in total. A large portion of the dead consisted of Dhani tribesmen. Local authorities distributed food, blankets, clothing, and money to survivors. Helicopters supplied food and other relief supplies, but they were slowed by cracks in the local airstrips. More than 25 survivors were treated for severe injuries and another 100 for less grave maladies. Between 200 and 300 people were evacuated in the aftermath of the tremor, and 3,500 Hupla people were resettled at a lower altitude, thus moving them from their traditional settlements.

Geology

The

focal mechanism The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the deformation in the source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a fault-related event it refers to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and the slip vector and is ...

for the earthquake demonstrated reverse faulting. The region around the epicenter has a history of powerful earthquakes. Between two earthquakes in 1976 and 1981, 1000 people died. There have been large earthquakes in the region as recently as

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

References

Sources

External links

* {{Earthquakes in Indonesia 1989 earthquakes 1989 in Indonesia 1989 in science Earthquakes in Indonesia August 1989 events in Asia 1989 disasters in Indonesia

Details and relief

Geology

See also

References

Sources

External links