Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/Z503976/1
Determining the potential for eruption-driven tsunami hazards at Ruang volcano, Indonesia
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr S Watt, University of Birmingham, Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr JM Carey, University of Birmingham, Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr B Dini, University of Birmingham, Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr M Cassidy, University of Birmingham, Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Birmingham, Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences
- Science Area:
- None
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- The recent eruption of Ruang, Indonesia, offers a rare opportunity to advance our knowledge of tsunami-generating processes at partially submerged volcanoes. Many volcanoes globally form small islands, often with isolated populations, prone to the impacts of eruption-related tsunamis. These tsunamis can be driven by complex and cascading sequences of events, including both explosive eruption processes (e.g., pyroclastic flows) and flank instabilities (generating landslides). As a consequence, volcanic tsunamis are challenging to forecast and prepare for, as demonstrated by events at Anak Krakatau in 2018 and Hunga Tonga in 2022, and form a critical knowledge gap in volcanology. At many volcanic islands, the record of past eruptive events and their potential for tsunami generation is poorly understood. These volcanic settings are also often unmonitored, given their isolation and limited land surface. Planning effective monitoring strategies thus remains a major challenge. Ruang, which lies in the Sangihe arc between Sulawesi and the Philippines, has a history of tsunami generation that has led to it being ranked among the highest-risk volcanoes in southeast Asia for volcanic tsunami hazards, despite the limited knowledge of its current instability. The eruption of Ruang in April 2024 raised tsunami alerts that led to the evacuation of 12,000 people. The volcano has been frequently active in the past century, but the recent eruption was the largest on record, and included pyroclastic currents which travelled over seawater to a neighbouring island, Tagulandang, but did not produce measurable tsunamis. The size of the eruption was comparable to a powerful but little known event in 1870, which was followed seven months later by a tsunami-generating volcanic landslide that caused several hundred deaths on Tagulandang. Despite this historical precedent, eruption and instability processes at Ruang have not been subject to focused study. None of its eruptions have been well observed by modern instrumentation and the mechanisms associated with instability hazards at the volcano have not been investigated. There is an urgent need to evaluate the potential for instability hazards given the past record of volcanogenic tsunamis at Ruang and the vulnerability of local populations. Here, we will address this need using a novel combination of remote sensing, engineering geology and volcanological techniques - an approach that wouldn't have been possible for past eruptions of Ruang, given availability of satellite imagery, and that is a priority given the intensity of the recent eruption - to develop the first eruptive and instability model of Ruang, providing the framework to assess volcanic tsunami risk at the island and to plan future management strategies. We will work closely with Indonesian partners to combine our results with other observational datasets and develop protocols that can be applied to both Ruang and comparable volcanic islands throughout the region. Our work will evaluate the immediate and longer term instability of Ruang. This will greatly advance our knowledge of eruptive processes and associated hazards in the Sangihe arc, and develop a new capability to assess tsunami hazard scenarios more broadly across small volcanic-island settings. We are particularly well placed to deliver this research, given active projects with Indonesian hazard management agencies, including a current PhD project evaluating tsunami scenarios in the Sangihe arc. Through these relationships, this project will inform the development of strategies applicable across partially submerged volcanoes in the region that pose tsunami-generating risks.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/Z503976/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Event/Action
- Scheme:
- Research Grants
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- Urgency Funding 2024
This grant award has a total value of £80,635
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £13,266 | £18,012 | £26,818 | £9,204 | £13,274 | £62 |
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