Courtesy of NOAA NCEI, Hugh Davies.The tsunami in Papua New Guinea had confirmed run-up heights of 15 meters (49 feet) at the village of Arop and 10–15 meters on a 25-kilometer (15-mile) stretch of coastline from the village of Sissano to Teles.The tsunami wave removed all traces of several hundred houses along the coastline of the Arop Villages. The Aitape, Papua New Guinea, tsunami of 17 July 1998 was focussed on a 14-km sector of coastline centred on the villages of Arop, Warapu and Nimas.
Here the wave height was 10 m or more and all structures within 400-500 m of the shoreline were destroyed. This event also brought to light the need for every country to identify the scope of their tsunami probability hazard and develop a tsunami preparedness plan.In the 1990s, the people of Papua New Guinea were largely unaware of their risk to tsunami hazards. Large tsunami waves destroyed primarily three fishing villages along a 30 km stretch of beach west of Atape, in the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guienea (PNG).
But the terror for the villagers on the islands was far from over, as three catastrophic tsunami waves followed—devastating and razing the entire villages of Sissano, Warapu, Arop, and Malomo on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, killing at least 1,600, injuring 1,000, and displacing more than 10,000 people.The earthquake and tsunami that struck Papua New Guinea in 1998, struck along its northern coast. The 2009 Samoa Islands tsunami caused the largest number of American deaths due to a tsunami in the 21st Century. Aitape Story: The Great New Guinea Tsunami of 1998. Braddon, Australian Capital Territory: Halstead Press.Kong, L., P. Dunbar, and N. Arcos (2015). The tsunami in Papua New Guinea had confirmed run-up heights of 15 meters (49 feet) at the village of Arop and 10–15 meters on a 25-kilometer (15-mile) stretch of coastline from the village of Sissano to Teles.While most tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes, the tsunami that devastated Papua New Guinea was quite different. It was the beginning of a week of school vacation, so students had returned from their boarding schools to be with their families.
There had been no major tsunami causing significant loss of life in Papua New Guinea for more than 60 years, and no well-publicized tsunami disaster elsewhere in the world during that time.After the tsunami, a video documentary was produced to help the villagers of Papua New Guinea understand why and how the tsunami disaster happened.
On the evening of 17 July 1998, on the Aitape coast of Papua New Guinea, a strongly felt earthquake was followed some 10-25 minutes later by a destructive tsunami. The tsunami raised awareness among scientists of the potential for small earthquakes to trigger large tsunamis, if they cause undersea landslides. When the earthquake struck, it caused some damage to structures and cracks developed in the ground but nothing life-threatening.Soon after, the villagers heard a loud boom and went to the beach to investigate the unusual noise, observing that the sea was “boiling” or bubbling. This natural disaster killed 2,100 people, severely injured 800 people, and displaced over 10,000 people (Dengler, 2003). The Tsunami of 17 July 1998 in Papua - New Guinea. Courtesy of NOAA NCEI.While the first earthquake struck at 5:49 p.m., there were several strong and moderate aftershocks that struck in rapid succession soon after, with aftershocks lasting throughout the night.According to Hugh Davies in his book about the 1998 event, Aitape Story, when the earthquake hit, families in the coastal villages were gathered for their evening meals. Since the villagers had just seen the video, only 5 people perished from the tsunami out of a possible 300.Davies, H. L. (2017). The timing of the film showing was quite fortuitous as three weeks later, on November 26, 1999, a 7.5 Mw earthquake occurred, followed by a tsunami measured at 6.6 meters (21 feet).
Honolulu: International Tsunami Information Center. More than 2200 people were killed and 10,000 survivors were forced to relocate inland.