Abstract
The Palu-Donggala earthquake struck Palu city of Sulawesi island, Indonesia, on 28 September 2018. A large-scale liquefaction phenomena occurred in some areas which caused massive fatalities and destructions. The most severe liquefaction incident during the earthquake followed by flowslides occurred in Petobo district of the city. The affected area due to Petobo flowslide liquefaction was approximately 1.64 km2. The damages were severe because of densely populated area with estimated more than 3300 houses collapsed and nearly 2000 fatalities. The slide materials transformed into debris and flowed on the low-relief ground of about 2% with a slide distance of more than 800 m. A site reconnaissance of Petobo flowslide was conducted in early 2020, which covered surface observations and documentations before and after the flowslide, interpretations of geological characteristics, summary of witness interviews, analyses of ground displacement and changes in surface elevation and slope due to the flowslide. The results reveal insights as to the failure mechanism of the Petobo flowslide. Based on the observed phenomena on the surface, the Petobo flowslide area could generally be divided into four types of morphology, namely, ground slide (GS), liquefaction spread (LS), liquefaction flow (LF) and debris flood (DF). The GS and LS were considered to be the initiation zones, then the slide materials spread down and formed LF zone. In this area, the soils became wet and muddy as triggered by liquefaction. The liquefied materials then transported into DF zone where densely populated areas in lower elevation of the site were hit.
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Data availability
The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article, except for the supporting Lidar data from Centre of Data and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing of the Republic of Indonesia which are not publicly available. The data for this project are confidential, but may be obtained with use agreements with the Centre of Data and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing of the Republic of Indonesia.
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The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would express sincere gratitude to Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology/BRIN for funding this work through PTUPT research scheme with Contract Number: 45.25.3/UN37/PPK.6.8/2021 and also Centre of Data and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing of the Republic of Indonesia for supporting the Lidar data after of 2018 Palu-Donggala earthquake.
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This research was funded by Ministry Education of Republic Indonesia through research funding fiscal year 2021.
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R. K. and M. C. conceived this research and designed the study; T. C. U., R. H., M. H. F. and G. A. P. participated in the field investigations and interpretations of the data; R. K. and M. C. wrote the paper and participated in the associated revisions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kusumawardani, R., Chang, M., Upomo, T.C. et al. Understanding of Petobo liquefaction flowslide by 2018.09.28 Palu-Donggala Indonesia earthquake based on site reconnaissance. Landslides 18, 3163–3182 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01700-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01700-x