On June 3, 1994, an Ms = 7.2 earthquake occured at a depth of 15 km near the east end of the Java trench in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake generated a large tsunami that violently struck southeast Java and extended to southwest Bali (Figures 1 and 2). Approximately 200 people were killed, 400 were injured, and 1000 houses were destroyed. Runup heights (Figure 2) ranged from 0–5 m in west Bali to 1–14 m in southeast Java.
This unusual tsunami was generated about 250 km from the hardest hit area. Surprisingly, strong earthquake-induced ground shaking was not a precursor so local residents had no warning of the impending catastrophe. The long-period characteristics of the earthquake were incommensurate with the relatively weak high-frequency magnitude Mb=5.5, and the rate of seismic moment release grew monotonically up to at least 270s. The pattern resembled that of the Nicaragua earthquake of September 2, 1992, in which strong ground shaking did not occur. Most of the damage was concentrated in villages located in pocket beaches, unlike previous tsunami damage in west Nicaragua, Flores, Indonesia [Yeh et al., 1993], and Okushiri, Japan.