Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

NATURAL HAZARDS

Irrigation and the Palu landslides

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 881–882 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Wet rice cultivation in the Palu Valley, Indonesia, prepared the ground for the devastating liquefaction-induced landslides that were triggered by the Mw 7.5 earthquake in 2018, suggest two studies of the spatial relationship between landslide morphology and irrigation.

Human activity can influence earthquake hazard. Artificially filled ground has enhanced earthquake ground motion1, and the filling of reservoirs and deep injection of waste water have induced earthquakes2,3. The moment magnitude (Mw) 7.5 earthquake in Palu, Sulawesi in 2018 has taught us that another — seemingly innocuous — human activity can exacerbate earthquake hazard: irrigation on gentle, alluvial slopes, as is common in many rice-growing areas of Asia. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Bradley et al.4 and Watkinson and Hall5 have established that the massive and deadly low-angle landslides generated by the Palu earthquake were induced by earthquake-triggered liquefaction, caused by a water table artificially raised by the irrigation system in the Palu Valley.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Destruction by liquefaction, Petobo, Palu.

Pacific Press Agency / Alamy Stock Photo

References

  1. Boatwright, J., Seekins, L. C., Fumal, T. E., Liu, H.-P. & Mueller, C. S. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 81, 1980–1997 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Keranen, K. M., Weingarten, M., Abers, G. A., Bekins, B. A. & Ge, S. Science 345, 448–451 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Simpson, D. W., Stachnik, J. C. & Negmatoullaev, S. Kh. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 108, 2943–2954 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bradley, K. et al. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0444-1 (2019).

  5. Watkinson, I. M. & Hall, R. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0448-x (2019).

  6. Soloviev, S. L. & Go, Ch. N. Catalogue of tsunamis on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean (Nauka Publishing House, 1974).

  7. Widianto, S. Indonesia’s indigenous languages hold the secrets of surviving disaster. foreignpolicy.com (15 October 2018).

  8. Fackler, M. Tsunami warnings, written in stone. The New York Times (20 April 2011).

  9. McAdoo, B. G., Dengler, L., Prasetya, G. & Titov, V. Earthq. Spectra 22, 661–669 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Watkinson, I. M. & Hall, R. Geol. Soc. London Spec. Publ. 441, 71–120 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Phil R. Cummins

Authors
  1. Phil R. Cummins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phil R. Cummins.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cummins, P.R. Irrigation and the Palu landslides. Nat. Geosci. 12, 881–882 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0467-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0467-7

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing