Abstract Tsunami hazard maps are generated for the coastline of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia, to support evacuation and disaster response planning. A random heterogeneous slip generator is used to forward model a suite of earthquake rupture scenarios on the Mentawai Segment of the Sunda Subduction Zone. Up to 1000 rupture models that fit constraints provided by coral and geodetic records of coseismic vertical deformation from major earthquakes in 1797, 1833 and 2007 are used to model inundation and to define a maximum inundation zone that envelopes all of these scenarios. Comparison with single-scenario hazard assessments developed by experts and agreed through scientific consensus shows that there is value in modelling a suite of scenarios in order to obtain a more robust and conservative estimate of potential inundated areas. Although both the model presented here and the single-scenario models are based on assumptions about the characteristics of future events using knowledge of past events, by sampling a range of plausible outcomes we gain a more robust estimate of which areas may be inundated during a tsunami within the bounds of the assumptions applied.

Abstract A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment that includes the effect of site amplification is undertaken for the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. High seismic activity rates, both along fast-slipping crustal faults including the major Palu-Koro–Matano Fault System and in regions of distributed deformation, contribute to moderate–high earthquake hazard over all but the SW part of the island. Of particular concern in terms of seismic risk are the numerous cities sited on soft sedimentary basins that have formed due to movement along presently active structures and that can be expected to amplify earthquake ground motions, including the provincial capitals of Palu and Gorontalo.

Abstract Recent work by a multi-disciplinary team has led to a significantly better understanding of the prospectivity of the North Red Sea. New regional biostratigraphic and environmental analysis from north to south through the Gulf of Suez and into the Red Sea have placed the Nubian sequences into a regional chronostratigraphic framework. The Nubian Upper Cretaceous pre-rift sandstones are observed in the field on both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian side of the North Red Sea. This regionally extensive sequence was deposited in a continental to shallow marine setting fringing the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, which lay further north. Extensive onshore fieldwork and mapping of sediment input points, fault orientations and fault linkages have helped to develop an understanding of the expected controls on syn-rift sandstone and carbonate deposition offshore. Thick halite with interbedded evaporite and clastics in the Late Miocene sequences of the Red Sea pose seismic imaging challenges. Recent reprocessing and newly acquired seismic data have produced a step change improvement in imaging of the prospective pre-rift section. Petroleum systems modelling incorporating new information on rift timing and crustal thinning as well as onshore core analysis for source rock properties and temperature variation through time indicates that oil expulsion occurs in the inboard section of North Red Sea – Block 1. This is supported by hydrocarbon shows in the drilled offshore wells which can be typed to pre-rift source rocks from stable isotope and biomarker data. All the key elements of the Gulf of Suez petroleum system exist in the North Red Sea. An integrated exploration approach has enabled prospective areas in the North Red Sea – Block 1 to be high-graded for drilling in early 2011.