On 6 September 1988, at 10:43am local time, a large part of an unnamed mountain of the Saruwaged Range in the
of
Morobe Province
Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands Province ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, collapsed, throwing 1,300
-1,800
[ millions of cubic meters of rock onto the valley below. This resulted in the village of Marafau being entirely covered by the landslide, as well as the partial covering of the villages of Mitzing and Zumera, killing 74 people in the process.][ ]
After the landslide
The three villages, now grouped together, form the 13th ward of the Umi-Atzero Rural LLG
Umi-Atzero Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the islan ...
in the Markham District and house the internally displaced inhabitants of the former villages.[ {{Cite web , last= , first= , date=2022-05-23 , title=Safe drinking water for Markham , url=https://www.looppng.com/node/112595 , access-date=2024-03-27 , website=Loop PNG , language=en ]
References
1980s landslides
1988 natural disasters
20th-century disasters in Papua New Guinea
Morobe Province
1988 in Papua New Guinea
September 1988 in Oceania