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nother possibility is an upwards thrust of the seabed in a zone some distance from Palu where the strike-slip fault splits into diverging tracks

Palu witnessed a lot of liquefaction, where the structure of soils in the city was seen to collapse, to become fluidised and flow even on very low gradients.

That basically leaves no time for warnings. That's very different from Japan (in 2011) where there was an eternity of time - more than 30 minutes everywhere until the first person was killed by the tsunami. That's the challenge for these local tsunamis: people have to self-evacuate."

The report catalogued serious deficiencies in both the government and plant operator Tepco's response.

It also blamed cultural conventions and a reluctance to question authority. Analysis By Mariko OiBBC News, Tokyo While the report is highly critical of all the key parties, it digs even deeper. The panel called the disaster "Made in Japan", because the mindset that allowed the accident to happen can be found across the country. It flagged up the bureaucracy's role in both promoting and regulating the nuclear industry, and also cultural factors such as a traditional reluctance to question authority. The report was expected to use strong language, but not many thought it would be this harsh. The panel also found that there was a possibility that the plant was damaged by the earthquake, contradicting the official position that only the tsunami contributed to the disaster. It could put further pressure on the government, which recently authorised the restart of two nuclear reactors in western Japan. They were declared safe in April but the plant also sits on top of a fault line.

"Although triggered by these cataclysmic events, the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cannot be regarded as a natural disaster," it sai