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Field Investigation of the November to December 2015 Earthquake Swarm in West Halmahera, Indonesia

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Abstract

The West Halmahera Swarm (WHS) event occurred from November to December 2015. A seismic station located in Ternate City detected at least 1000 shocks of magnitude (M) ≥ 1 and 11 shocks of M ≥ 4.5. Our estimation yields a cumulative seismic moment of 3.87 × 1021 N m, which is equivalent to a single M 8.3 earthquake. We conducted a field survey after the swarm event and found that roads and residents’ houses experienced cracks, while some parts of buildings were destroyed during the event. We find that the 2015 WHS was located just below the Jailolo volcano and was strongly associated with volcanic activity.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and the Editor for their helpful comments and suggestions. This study was partially funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for Graduate Research on Earthquake and Ministry of Research and Higher Education No. PN-7-06-2016. Some of the figures are made using GMT software (Wessel and Smith 1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Research on Earthquake and Active Tectonics, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

    Endra Gunawan

  2. Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management, Bandung, Indonesia

    Firza Ghozalba,  Syauqi & Yudhi Widiastomo

  3. Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

    Irwan Meilano

  4. Research Center for Disaster Mitigation, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

    Nuraini Rahma Hanifa

  5. Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Daryono

  6. Geological Agency of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Sri Hidayati

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  1. Endra Gunawan
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  2. Firza Ghozalba
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  3. Syauqi
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  7. Daryono
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Correspondence to Endra Gunawan.

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Gunawan, E., Ghozalba, F., Syauqi et al. Field Investigation of the November to December 2015 Earthquake Swarm in West Halmahera, Indonesia. Geotech Geol Eng 35, 425–432 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-016-0117-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-016-0117-4

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