Tsunami Records Show Increased Hazards for Chile’s Central Coast
Simulations of the historical quake raise new concerns: A similar event in the future could cause a devastating tsunami in Chile’s most populated coastal region.
By Sarah Stanley 23 hours ago
In the early morning of 8 July 1730, residents of central coastal Chile felt what would later be known as the largest earthquake to strike this region since the beginning of local written history (around 1540). The tremor destroyed buildings along more than 1000 kilometers of the coast. Researchers previously thought that the quake may have reached a magnitude of Mw 8.5 to 9.0.
Now Carvajal et al. suggest that this historical quake was even larger than previous estimates and likely reached a magnitude of more than Mw 9, meaning that it was a truly giant event.
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/tsunami-records-show-increased-hazards-for-chiles-central-coast
