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Numerical Simulations of December 22, 2018 Anak Krakatau Tsunami and Examination of Possible Submarine Landslide Scenarios
On December 22, 2018, a destructive tsunami related to the phenomena caused by the volcanic eruption of Gunung
Anak Krakatau (GAK) was generated following a partial collapse of the volcano that caused serious damage and killed more than 400 people. This recent event challenged the traditional understanding of tsunami hazard, warning and response mechanisms and raised the topic of volcanic tsunami hazard. The complex mechanism of
this tsunamigenic volcano collapse still needs further investigation as Anak Krakatau is one of the potentially tsunamigenic volcanoes in the world. This study investigates the possible source mechanisms of this phenomenon and their contribution to explaining the observed sea level disturbances by considering the impacts of this
destructive event. We configured a flank collapse scenario with a volume of 0.25 km3 as a combination of submarine and subaerial mass movement as the possible source scenarios to the December 22, 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami. A two-layer model is applied to simulate the tsunami generation by these landslides up to 420 s. The tsunami propagation and inundation are then simulated by NAMI DANCE model in GPU environment. The simulation results
suggest that this scenario seems capable of generating such a tsunami observed along the coast of Sunda Strait. However, the contribution of the possible submarine mass movements in the close area between GAK and the surrounding islands either to this event or potential tsunami threat in the region is still questionable. We employed a bathymetric dataset through pre- and post-event analyses, which demonstrate submarine slope failures in the
southwestern proximity of GAK. Hence, additional two scenarios of elliptical landslide sources on the slopes of bathymetry change area (could be triggered by seismic motion/volcanic eruption) are considered, searching for the possible effects of the tsunami that might be generated by these submarine landslides. The study may also provide some perspective for potential tsunami generation by combined sources and help to elucidate the extent of volcanic
tsunami hazard in the region due to potential future eruptions of Gunung Anak Krakatau.