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Reassessment of the 1907 Sumatra “Tsunami Earthquake” Based on Macroseismic, Seismological, and Tsunami Observations, and Modeling

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A Correction to this article was published on 06 October 2020

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Abstract

On 4 January 1907, an earthquake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, with an instrumental surface-wave magnitude (MS) in the range of 7.5–8.0 at periods of ~ 40 s. The tsunami it generated was destructive on the islands of Nias and Simeulue, where it killed hundreds and gave rise to the legend of the S’mong. This tsunami was also observed in other parts of the Indian Ocean basin. Relative to its instrumented magnitude, the size of the tsunami was anomalous, qualifying the event as a “tsunami earthquake”. However, unusually for a tsunami earthquake, the shaking on Nias was severe (7 EMS). We revisit the 1907 earthquake with a multidisciplinary approach by extracting evidence describing shaking effects or the tsunami from written documents and by acquiring new seismograms. Combining these, we discriminate two large earthquakes within an hour of each other with clear differences in seismological character. The first we interpret to be a tsunami earthquake with characteristic low levels of shaking, an estimated average seismic moment (M0) of 2.5 × 1028 dyn cm (MW ≈ 8.2) in the frequency band 6–8 mHz, and an epicentral location close to the front of the Sunda Megathrust. The seismograms we analyzed also document a regular growth of moment with period, approaching MW ≈ 8.4 at the longest resolvable period (~ 170 s). For the second earthquake that caused damage on Nias, we estimate MS ≈ 7 based on seismograms and phase data. We also identify two MS ≈ 6 aftershocks within 24 h of the mainshock. Additionally, we present a dataset of 88 locations within the Indian Ocean basin where the tsunami was observed. Using a subset of these, we forward modeled the tsunami to propose a seismic rupture model extending along the Sunda Megathrust for about 220 km (~ 94.7°E to ~ 97°E) with a maximum modeled slip of ~ 21 m. Our new rupture model provides an acceptable fit to our new dataset of tsunami runup and inundation values from 88 local and far-field locations in the Indian Ocean basin. We also urge caution against an over-reliance on the S’mong legend for tsunami evacuation as its premise, that a tsunami will only follow an earthquake with very severe ground motions, is rendered ineffective for tsunami earthquakes.

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Change history

  • 06 October 2020

    Due to an unfortunate oversight we did not publish the hypothetical slip model

Notes

  1. The old Dutch measure “een paal” used in colonial Indonesia is equivalent to 1507 m (Staring 1871).

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Acknowledgements

This article has benefited from interactions with Alicia Schriker, Anthony Reid, Aron Meltzner, Christina Widiwijayanti, Euan Smith, Lauriane Chardot, Hiroo Kanamori, Luis Rivera, Priyamvada Nanjundiah, Qiang Qiu, Shengji Wei, and Susan Bilek. We are also grateful for the constructive reviews of two anonymous reviewers and the comments of Guest Editor Yuichiro Tanioka. We would like to thank H.P. Shukla, Isabelle Garnier-Loussaut, Susanne Sargeant, Vineet Gahalaut, and Yann Ferret for assistance rendered in our efforts to locate additional seismograms and station bulletins for the earthquake, and maregrams. Hiroo Kanamori provided Japanese seismograms from Hongo and Osaka. Dominico Di Giacomo provided a customized grid-search relocation. Robert Engdahl provided relocated seismicity from Engdahl et al. (2007), and Alexandre Sahal provided French newspaper reports from La Réunion. Çağıl Karakaş, Iwan Hermawan, Koen van Noten, and Mari Hamahashi assisted with, or verified selected translations. Aron Meltzner provided field notes and photos from the 2005–2007 field season. Isabelle Autissier and Gracieuse Delépine provided insight on the conditions at Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands. We also acknowledge the services rendered by the staff at libraries in The Hague (Koninklijk Bibliotheek and Nationaal Archief), Berkeley (National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering, University of California, Berkeley), Canberra (National Library of Australia), Jakarta (UNESCO), London (The British Library), Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles), Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale de France), and Singapore (National Library of Singapore). E.O. was partially supported at Northwestern University by the National Science Foundation, under subcontract from the University of Pittsburgh’s Hazards SEES Grant Number OCE-1331463. This paper is a contribution to IGCP Project 639 Sea-Level Changes from Minutes to Millennia. This research is partly supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore and the Singapore Ministry of Education under the Research Centres of Excellence initiative. This work comprises Earth Observatory of Singapore contribution number 218.

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  1. Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Stacey Servito Martin, Linlin Li, Adam D. Switzer & Kerry E. Sieh

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

    Emile A. Okal

  3. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Julie Morin

  4. Institute for History, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Alexander E. G. Tetteroo

  5. Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Adam D. Switzer & Kerry E. Sieh

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Martin, S.S., Li, L., Okal, E.A. et al. Reassessment of the 1907 Sumatra “Tsunami Earthquake” Based on Macroseismic, Seismological, and Tsunami Observations, and Modeling. Pure Appl. Geophys. 176, 2831–2868 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-019-02134-2

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