Seismic and Tsunami Hazard Potential in Sulawesi Island, Indonesia <Article>

From the middle of 1970's until now, the Sulawesi Island which is surrounded by several small and big tectonic plates had been struck 270 times by earthquake above 5.0 in magnitude. This number of occurrence tends to get higher and higher each year, beginning after the raising activity of Sunda Arc over the past last six years, which recently struck Padang, West Sumatera in September 2009. The goal of this study is to find out the most potential areas for seismic and tsunamis activities in Sulawesi Island, by analyzing the historical data of earthquakes and tsunamis at the areas and also base on the fault system on it. It was found out that the earthquakes with magnitude above 5.0 in the next ten years will occur minimally 49 times; with almost all of them will be sea-epicenter which could generate tsunami in some areas. The most potential areas will be the North Arm of Sulawesi, especially in the coasts of North, South and East.