1877 Iquique earthquake

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The earthquake of Iquique in 1877 was a major earthquake on May 9, 1877 at 21:16 clock local time ( 0:59 clock on May 10 UTC). It had a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale and a maximum felt intensity of XI (extreme ) on the Mercalliskala. It triggered a devastating tsunami. A total of 2541 people were killed by the impact of the earthquake, mainly in Peru and northern Chile, but also Hawaii and Japan, which have been achieved by the tsunami, reported victims.

Tectonic overview

The coastal regions of Peru and Chile are above the subduction zone where the Nazca plate subducted under the South American Plate along the Atacama trench. The rate of convergence is about eight inches per year. This plate boundary was the site of numerous large mega -thrust earthquakes; more earthquake events in the region are caused by faults within both the subducting and the over -shifting plate.

Damage

The tremors have led to significant damage along the coastal areas of the regions of Tarapacá (then Peru) and Antofagasta (then Bolivia). The tsunami reached a length of 500 kilometers - from Arica in the north to the south Mejillones a wave height of ten meters. In Arica, the tsunamis Cathedral. The wreck of the USS Wateree, had been purged of the last tidal wave of triggered by the earthquake of Arica tsunami of 1868 several hundred yards inland, was several miles further closer transported by the tsunami to the north and back to the original shoreline. Due to the tsunami were in Hilo, Hawaii killed five people and destroyed 37 homes. In Japan, died in the tsunami on the Boso Peninsula numerous inhabitants.

Earthquake and Tsunami

The tremors lasted in Caleta Pavilion of Pica, a coastal town about 70 km south of Iquique, about five minutes. The area with a felt intensity of VIII or more on the Mercalliskala ranged from about 50 km south of Arica to south of Cobija. From this, a rupture of the earth's crust over a length of about 420 km derived.

The tsunami affected the coast of Peru, Bolivia ( the front of the Salpeter still had access to the sea ), and the north of Chile from. He arrived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and north of the equator also Hawaii, Mexico, California and Japan. In Arica total of eight individual tsunami waves were observed. The height of the tsunami reached the Hawaiian Islands in Hilo 5 m and 6.6 m in Kahului as well as on the Japanese islands of Honshu in Kamaishi 3 m and Hokkaidō Hakodate a height of 2.4 m. In Nagasaki in the south of the island of Kyushu, the wave height was 3 m and 1.5 m in Wellington, New Zealand.

Earthquake risk in the future

The area where the earth's crust crack 1877, was recognized as one of the major seismic gaps. The Tocopilla earthquake of 2007 with the magnitude Mw = 7.7 occurred on the southern edge of this gap. The risk of a large mega -thrust earthquake in this area was thus only slightly reduced. In this area, a repetition time of 135 years was estimated for large earthquakes so that a large earthquake with a similar procedure as in 1877 is expected to take place in the near future.