May 14, 1995 Tsunami: Timor Sea, Indonesia

On May 14, 1995, a magnitude 6.9 Ms (Mw 6.9) (HRV) earthquake occurred at 11:33 UT in the Flores Sea, Indonesia. Eleven people were missing fiom Timor, 19 injured, and a 1.5-meter tsunami destroyed several homes in the Dili area and damaged 40 fishing boats. Considerable damage also occurred in the Maliana region. The ITIC reported that they received a report from Indonesia that

this was a subsidence and no one saw a wave return. In an email on May 30, Prasetya said, "We conclude that no tsunamis have been generated directly by the earthquake which was reported by the newspaper to have occurred on 14 May 1995. The wave run-up occurred at some places due to land subsidence in coastal areas." There is probably a problem with the understanding of the definition of

a tsunami. The subsided areas were discontinuous, and the inundation was 120 meters. (reference #1315)

One of the initial reports from the earthquake site said a 4 m wave flooded an area (120 m inland) causing the disappearance of 11 people and damaging a number of houses and boats. (reference #2276)

Eleven people missing on Timor. Several houses destroyed by a local tsunami in the Dili area. Considerable damage also occurred in the Maliana and Maubara areas. Landslides occurred in the epicentral area. (reference #1053)

Results of Survey on East Timor Earthquake 14 May 1995: I just came back from East Timor last night for Tsunami investigation. Our team, continuing the investigation which had already been done by Meteorological and Geophysical Agency (MGA) and the results are: 14 May 1995 caused the land subsidence at some places along the coast of the western part of East Timor, from Dili coast to Maboura. We found on Marinir Villages that the land subsidence caused the wave run-up 4 m (from SWL) and the width of area which cover by this run-up are 120 m (the width of land subsidence around 550 m). (reference #350)