The 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami killed approximately 4,340 people, making it Indonesia's deadliest seismic event since 2006 and the world's deadliest earthquake that year.
Key Facts
- Magnitude
- 7.5–7.6 Mw
- Death toll
- ~4,340 people
- Tsunami height
- 4–7 metres
- Distance from Palu
- 70 km
- Largest foreshock
- 6.1 Mw
- Liquefaction scale
- Largest recorded globally
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
A sequence of foreshocks, including a magnitude 6.1 tremor earlier on 28 September 2018, preceded the mainshock. The tectonic setting of the Minahasa Peninsula in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a region of active fault systems, produced the conditions for a large, shallow rupture capable of generating both strong ground shaking and an ocean tsunami.
On 28 September 2018, a shallow magnitude 7.5–7.6 earthquake struck Donggala Regency in Central Sulawesi, with shaking felt as far as Samarinda and Tawau, Malaysia. It triggered a localised tsunami reaching 4–7 metres in height that struck Palu, Donggala, and Mamuju, and caused extensive soil liquefaction around Palu that submerged buildings and generated mudflows.
The combined earthquake, tsunami, and liquefaction caused an estimated 4,340 deaths, making it Indonesia's deadliest earthquake since the 2006 Yogyakarta event and the world's deadliest in 2018. The liquefaction was assessed as the largest recorded globally and was considered rare in scale, compounding the destruction beyond what the shaking and tsunami alone would have caused.
Human Cost
Each dot represents approximately 10,000 deaths. Total estimated: 4,340 (earthquake)