8. PRELIMINARY RECOMMENDATIONS.

　

1) There should be no relocation of people in locales which are fronted by water and backed by rivers or lagoons. Memorials should be built at the worst stricken locales to remind future inhabitants of this disaster and thus discourage future habitation of high risk locales. These memorials could be as simple as large signs

.

1) Schools, churches and other critical facilities should never be located closer than 400m from the coastline, and preferably 800m in at-risk areas.

　

1) The local casuarina tree species withstands the wave attack significantly better than coconut trees, and casuarina forests should be planted in front of coastal communities, whenever possible.

　

1) There should be evacuation drills annually on the anniversary of this disaster so that all people in at-risk areas know that if they feel the ground moving they should run as far from the beach as possible.

　

1) Every family in an at-risk area should have a designated casuarina tree with a ladder or carved steps to allow vertical evacuation of the able, when there is no other option.

　

1) The residents in nonaffected areas should return to their homes, after being briefed about what to do in the event that they feel a ground motion or if they see unusual water movements. (As in most other 1992-98 tsunamis, this tsunami was preceded by an LDN, i.e., a leading-depression N-wave.)

　

7) The local fishermen should be allowed to resume fishing in the open ocean only. The local authorities should collect samples of the lagoon water (as described to them) and have them tested monthly to quantify the evolution of the water quality in the lagoon to determine when it would be safe again for fishing and habitation.

　

　

Future Prevention Work and Suggestions

　

Further work will continue to model the source and determine whether the possibility for a transpacific tsunami exists, either from the seafloor displacement or from a coseismic slump. It is hoped that a bathymetric survey will take place in the near future to attempt to find any evidence of slumping. (Interestingly, an NSF funded workshop in Santa Monica, California in May 1997 and organized by the University of Southern California on tsunamigenic seafloor deformations, it had prophetically concluded that there was a need to develop better methods to identify tsunami generation from submarine slumping events versus slow earthquakes. Understanding this event will hopefully lead to the production of inundation maps for the north coast of PNG, similar to those in Hawaii and under development for some western States. Having access to inundation maps helps the local authorities locate schools, hospitals, fire-stations and other critical facilities

　

　

　

9. LIST OF MEMBERS

　

Benson,USA

Borrero,USA

Jose Borrero, Univ. Southern Calif., USA

Willem de Lange, University of Waikato, NZ

Koji Fujima, National Defence Academy, JPN

Fumihiko Imamura, Tohoku University, JPN

Yoshiaki Kawata, Kyoto University, JPN

Masashi Matsuyama, CRIEPI, JPN

Hideo Matsutomi, Akita University, JPN

Jonathan Nott, James Cook University, Australia

Emil Okal, The Northwestern University, USA

Costas E. Synolakis, Univ. Southern Calif., USA

Tomoyuki Takahashi, Kyoto University, JPN

Yoshinobu Tsuji, Univ.Tokyo, JPN

　

　

　

　

10. REFECERENCES

　

Everingham,I.B.(1977): Preliminary Catalogue of tsunamis for the New Guinea/Solomon islands region, 1768-1972, Australian Dept. of National Resources, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Report No.180, 72p..

　

Carey,S.W.(1935): Preliminary notes on a recent earthquake in New Guinea, Aust.Geogr., 2(8), pp.8-15.

　

Davies,H.,L.,(1990): Structure and evolution of the border region of New Guinea, in Carman G.J., and Carman, Z.(editor) Petroleum Exploration in Papua New Guinea, pp.245-269.

　

Imamura,F., D.Subandono, G.Watson, A.Moore, T.Takahashi, H.Matsutomi and R.Hidayat(1997): Irian Jaya Earthquake and Tsunami causes serious damage, EOS, Transactions, AGU, Vol.78, No.19, p.197 and pp.201.

　

IOC (1998): Post-Tsunami survey field guide, Manual and Guides No.37, UNESCO, 28p.

　

Koshimura,S., L.Hamzah, and F.Imamura (1998): Preliminary Report on earthquake and tsunami of the 1998 Papua New Guinea,Disaster Control Research Center,Tohoku University, 18p.

　

Letz,H.(1985): Seismizitat in Irian Jaya (west-Neuguinea), Indonesien, und ihre tektonishe Bedeutung. Berliner Geowissenschaftiche Abhandlungen, Reihe B/Heft12, Verlag von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin.

　

McCarthy,J.K.(1963): Patrol into yesterday, Canberra F.W. Cheshire, 156.

　

Ripper , I.D. and H.Letz (1991): Distribution and origin of large earthquakes in the Papua New Guinea region, 1900-1989, Dept of Mining and Peteroleum, Geological Survey,77p.

　

Synolakis,C, F.Imamura, Y.Tsuji, H.Matsutomi, S.Tinti, B.Cook, Y.P. Chandra, and M.Usman(1995) : Damage, conditions of East Java Tsunami of 1994 analyzed, EOS, Transactions, AGU, Vol.76, No.26, p.257 and pp.261-262.

　

Yeh,H., F.Imamura, C.Synolakis, Y.Tsuji, P.Liu, S.Shi(1993) : The Flores island tsunamis, EOS, Transactions, AGU, Vol.74, No.33, pp.371-373,.