Why was the Chilean Tsunami so Small?
Jun 10, 2010 I Uncategorized.It may be several months or years before the Chilean tsunami is accurately understood.
But there are various other reasons why so many fewer people lost their lives this weekend.One is preparedness. Having suffered a destructive tsunami following a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in 1960 — the largest earthquake ever recorded — Chileans knew what was coming. Reports specify that alarms were sounded in the town of San Juan Bautista on Robinson Crusoe Islands, for example, possibly saving hundreds of lives.
That preparedness is also returned in Chile’s building codes, another lesson of the 1960 quake. Strong buildings likely conserved thousands of lives and prevented this disaster from approaching the magnitude of the continuing horrors in Haiti.
The size and depth of the Pacific Ocean may also have been a feature.Tsunami experts spot out that if a fault ruptures in relatively shallow water, the energy pulse may weaken as it emanates out into the deep ocean.This may have been the case with the Chile quake. It’s also possible that the fault moved somewhat horizontally, reducing the amount of vertical displacement in the water.