Potentially active normal faulting zone identified in the eastern margin of Palu City, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

The 2018 Mw 7.5 earthquake in Palu, Central Sulawesi, resulting in ~2,000 fatalities and estimated economic losses of ~22.8 trillion Indonesian Rupiah, according to the report of BAPPENAS and Central Sulawesi Provincial-Government. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent similar disaster in the future by further detailed studies of any other potential sources that are capable of generating such hazards. Palu City is in the vast depression valley bordered by mountains in its eastern and western margins. The 2018 earthquake source is the Palukoro Fault, which runs through the western margin of onshore Palu Valley then continued under the bay. Along the eastern margin of the valley, we also identified a wide zone of many potentially active faults strands orienting N-S and NW-SE, showing predominantly normal faulting. These faults are observed from their normal fault scarps as inspected from Light Detection and Ranging Digital Terrain Model (LiDAR DTM) data with 90-cm resolution and field ground checks. The faults deformed the old terrace sediments (Late Pleistocene, ~125 kya), but it is unclear whether they also cut the Holocene young alluvial like the ruptured fault of 2018 event. Further paleoseismology investigation is then necessary to obtain further information about these potentially-active normal faults, including their slip-rate and the past ruptures.