Field Survey of the 27 February 2010 Chile Tsunami

Abstract

On 27 February 2010, a magnitude M w = 8.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile's Maule region causing substantial damage and loss of life. Ancestral tsunami knowledge from the 1960 event combined with education and evacuation exercises prompted most coastal residents to spontaneously evacuate after the earthquake. Many of the tsunami victims were tourists in coastal campgrounds. The international tsunami survey team (ITST) was deployed within days of the event and surveyed 800 km of coastline from Quintero to Mehuín and the Pacific Islands of Santa María, Mocha, Juan Fernández Archipelago, and Rapa Nui (Easter). The collected survey data include more than 400 tsunami flow depth, runup and coastal uplift measurements. The tsunami peaked with a localized runup of 29 m on a coastal bluff at Constitución. The observed runup distributions exhibit significant variations on local and regional scales. Observations from the 2010 and 1960 Chile tsunamis are compared.

Risk factors and perceived restoration in a town destroyed by the 2010 Chile tsunami

“…The variable K i is defined as K i = x i /y i , where x i and y i are recorded and computed tsunami heights, respectively. The recorded tsunami heights were obtained from field survey data published by Mikami et al (2011) and Fritz et al (2011).…”

“…The 2010 Chile tsunami showed the high fragility of social and institutional systems in coastal areas, as significant destruction along 600 km of coastline was observed (Quezada et al, 2010;Fritz et al, 2011;Jaramillo et al, 2012;Sobarzo et al, 2012;Bahlburg and Spiske, 2012;Martínez et al, 2012). Historical records show that these phenomena are not sporadic in the country but rather highly recurrent, causing significant devastation (Lomnitz, 1970;Monge, 1993, Lagos, 2000Ruegg et al, 2011;Palacios, 2012).…”

Assessing urban adaptive capacity to climate change

“…The CMA has a warm-temperate coastal Mediterranean climate, with winter rainfall and high atmospheric humidity, and a dry season lasting from 4 to 5 months (Errázuriz et al 1998). Muñoz 2012), and the most recent earthquake and tsunami that affected the area in 2010 was one of the most devastating in recent times in the country (Fritz et al 2011). Consequently, the city's location changed once and the city has been rebuilt several times in response to natural disasters.…”

The quest for wisdom: lessons from 17 tsunamis, 2004–2014

“…Most of the tsunami fatalities involved individuals who became entrapped while camping on Orrego Island, in the estuary of the Maule River [97,98]. By contrast, the official governmental response was nothing short of inept: the President herself, on advice from the Chief of Staff of the Navy, issued a statement on national television barring any tsunami risk, about the time the first waves were reaching Valparaíso and after they had devastated the epicentral area; no warning was issued for the Juan Fernández Islands, 700 km west of the epicentre, when there would have been time to evacuate the village, later hit by waves running up 15 m, and causing 30 deaths [99].…”