Relocation of earthquakes recorded by the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics (BMKG) in Indonesia and inversions of global positioning system (GPS) data reveal clear seismic gaps to the south of the island of Java. These gaps may be related to potential sources of future megathrust earthquakes in the region. To assess the expected inundation hazard, tsunami modeling was conducted based on several scenarios involving large tsunamigenic earthquakes generated by ruptures along segments of the megathrust south of Java. The worst-case scenario, in which the two megathrust segments spanning Java rupture simultaneously, shows that tsunami heights can reach ~ 20 m and ~ 12 m on the south coast of West and East Java, respectively, with an average maximum height of 4.5 m along the entire south coast of Java. These results support recent calls for a strengthening of the existing Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (InaTEWS), especially in Java, the most densely populated island in Indonesia.

We use Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of surface deformation to show that the convergence between the Australian Plate and Sunda Block in eastern Indonesia is partitioned between the megathrust and a continuous zone of back‐arc thrusting extending 2000 km from east Java to north of Timor. Although deformation in this back‐arc region has been reported previously, its extent and the mechanism of convergence partitioning have hitherto been conjectural. GPS observations establish that partitioning occurs via a combination of anticlockwise rotation of an arc segment called the Sumba Block, and left‐lateral movement along a major NE‐SW strike‐slip fault west of Timor. We also identify a westward extension of the back‐arc thrust for 300 km onshore into East Java, accommodating slip of ∼6 mm/yr. These results highlight a major new seismic threat for East Java and draw attention to the pronounced seismic and tsunami threat to Bali, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara, and other coasts along the Flores Sea.

Land subsidence in cities along the northern coastline of Java has been at a worrying level. Monitoring efforts using geodetic data reveal that Jakarta, Pekalongan, Semarang, and Demak subside at least ~9x faster than the present-day rate of global sea level rise, which affects the cities’ future urban viability. In this study, we publish a time series of the precise 3D displacements observed by twenty continuous Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations between 2010 and 2021. These are the first open-to-the-public and rigorously processed GNSS datasets that are useful for accurately quantifying land subsidence in the densely populated sinking cities in Java. The data also provides a way to tie other geodetic observations, such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), to a global reference frame in an attempt to build worldwide observations of coastal land subsidence.

The 26 September 2019 $Mw$ 6.5 Ambon earthquake has been the largest instrumentally recorded event to occur in Ambon, the capital city of Maluku Islands, eastern Indonesia, and ruptured a previously unmapped active fault. In this study, we use seismic and geodetic data to investigate the source characteristics of the event. Our results show that the rupture process was complex in both the rupture initiation and slip directions. In addition, the rupture was mostly strike‐slip motion with normal component and pure reverse slip in the north of the inverted fault. Our analysis of campaign and continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity fields estimates that the fault has a 4.9 [4.0, 5.5] mm/yr slip rate with an earthquake recurrence interval of 115 [102, 141] yr. In addition, a comparison of the horizontal strain‐rate tensor derived from GPS velocity fields with historical earthquake data shows that Ambon Island and the nearby regions have a high strain accumulation rate correlated with the distribution of $Mw≥6$ earthquakes, indicating that the regions are seismically active and possibly will experience more Ambon‐type earthquakes in the future.

Geodetic measurements (e.g. Spirit Leveling, GNSS and InSAR) have clearly measured the land subsidence in many parts along northern coast of Java Island Indonesia. The impacts from the subsidence (e.g. problems on infrastructures, wider expansion of flooding, tidal inundation, etc.) are significantly appeared in certain places and already concluded as ecological disaster. Since mostly the land subsidence are located in cities lying on sediment area like Jakarta, Pekalongan, Semarang, Demak, and Surabaya where consumption of groundwater is very huge, in this case the typical of subsidence might be categorize as anthropogenic land subsidence. Nevertheless in order to make sure this typical, in this case the investigation on the others factors like the tectonic influence is necessary (e.g. as key for appropriate of adaptation or mitigation from disaster).This paper will highlight the investigation by using GNSS dataset in order to see the tectonic influence to the anthropogenic subsidence along northern coast of Java Island. Our preliminary result shows relatively lack of tectonic influence to the anthropogenic subsidence around the investigated area.