Submarine landslide megablocks show half of Anak Krakatau island failed on December 22nd, 2018

As demonstrated at Anak Krakatau on December 22nd, 2018, tsunamis generated by volcanic flank collapse are incompletely understood and can be devastating. Here, we present the first high-resolution characterisation of both subaerial and submarine components of the collapse. Combined Synthetic Aperture Radar data and aerial photographs reveal an extensive sub-aerial failure that bounds pre-event deformation and volcanic products. To the southwest of the volcano, bathymetric and seismic reflection data reveal a blocky landslide deposit (0.214 ± 0.036 km³) emplaced over 1.5 km into the adjacent basin. Our findings are consistent with en-masse lateral collapse with a volume ≥0.175 km³, resolving several ambiguities in previous reconstructions. Post-collapse eruptions produced an additional ~0.3 km³ of tephra, burying the scar and landslide deposit. The event provides a model for lateral collapse scenarios at other arc-volcanic islands showing that rapid island growth can lead to large-scale failure and that even faster rebuilding can obscure pre-existing collapse.

J. E. Hunt, D. R. Tappin, S. F. L. Watt, S. Susilohadi, A. Novellino, S. K. Ebmeier, M. Cassidy, S. L. Engwell, S. T. Grilli, M. Hanif, W. S. Priyanto, M. A. Clare, M. Abdurrachman, U. Udrekh