Kirk Here. I’d like to follow up on William’s post about the recent tsunami in Indonesia. I saw a TV report that emphasized the fact that the tsunami in Indonesia was not preceded by an earthquake. It was hypothesized that the event may have been caused by a collapse of a flank of Krakatau, as happened in Kumamoto in 1792. Here’s a Wikipedia description of that event:
“The 1792 Unzen earthquake and tsunami resulted from the volcanic activities of Mount Unzen (in the Shimabara Peninsula of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan) on 21 May. This caused the collapse of the southern flank of the Mayuyama dome in front of Mount Unzen, resulting in a tremendous tsunami, killing 15,000 people altogether. It was also called Shimabara erupted, Higo affected (島原大変肥後迷惑), (Shimabara means the central mountain of the Shimabara Peninsula) since many people were killed by this tsunami in Higo (Kumamoto Prefecture, situated 20 km away across the Ariake Sea).”
Recently, it has become clear that, indeed, the Indonesian tsunami was caused by such a collapse:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-24/what-caused-the-indonesian-tsunami/10665790
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1792_Unzen_earthquake_and_tsunami
