Geo-archaeological records of large Holocene tsunamis along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in the major northern Chile seismic gap

León, Tomás; Vargas, Gabriel; Salazar, Diego; Goff, James; Guendon, Jean Louis; Andrade, Pedro; Álvarez, Gabriel

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.07.038

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…However, paleotsunami deposits have been recently described from the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in protected areas associated with archaeological sites from the Taltal area (13). These deposits exhibit characteristics typically described for paleotsunamis from onshore environments (35), such as erosive basal contacts, seaward flame structures, landward thinning, rip-up clasts, massive texture or incipient lamination, imbrication, distinctive grain size distributions with respect to the underlying and overlying deposits, and the presence of small gastropods and other faunal remains typical of shoreline environments (13). Palaeotsunami deposits from Los Bronces and Hornos de Cal sites were previously reported as dating to ~4000 cal yr B.P.…”

Section: Regional Geological Evidence For Mid-holocene Uplifted Litto...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

et al. 2022

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Early inhabitants along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile developed resilience strategies over 12,000 years, allowing these communities to effectively adapt to this extreme environment, including the impact of giant earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, we provide geoarchaeological evidence revealing a major tsunamigenic earthquake that severely affected prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fisher communities ~3800 years ago, causing an exceptional social disruption reflected in contemporary changes in archaeological sites and triggering resilient strategies along these coasts. Together with tsunami modeling results, we suggest that this event resulted from a ~1000-km-long megathrust rupture along the subduction contact of the Nazca and South American plates, highlighting the possibility of M w ~9.5 tsunamigenic earthquakes in northern Chile, one of the major seismic gaps of the planet. This emphasizes the necessity to account for long temporal scales to better understand the variability, social effects, and human responses favoring resilience to socionatural disasters.

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Section: Regional Geological Evidence For Mid-holocene Uplifted Litto...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

et al. 2022

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“…Sumado a estas condiciones, la presencia de desastres naturales es recurrente en la zona, con un paleoregistro del fenómeno de El Niño -el cual causa torrenciales lluvias y aluviones (Vargas, Ortlieb y Rutllant, 2000) como también la presencia de terremotos y tsunamis. Para el caso del primero, se ha identificado su presencia desde el Pleistoceno Tardío (Vargas et al, 2000;Meza, 2019), mientras que para los segundos, se ha registrado su ocurrencia desde al menos el Holoceno Medio (León et al, 2019).…”

Section: Antecedentes Ambientales Y Arqueológicos De La Costa Desértiunclassified

Estudio de caso: conservación y análisis osteobiográfico del material óseo proveniente del sitio Hornos de Cal, costa de Taltal, norte de Chile

Araneda

Andrade

2020

Rev. Mus. Antrop.

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El sitio Hornos de Cal corresponde a un conchero ubicado en la costa desértica de Antofagasta, a 16 km al sur de Taltal. Se trata de un contexto funerario conformado por el entierro de un individuo adulto sin ofrendas asociadas, datado en el 6180±25 cal AP. El presente trabajo posee un enfoque osteobiográfico, donde a partir de estimaciones y determinaciones de sexo, la edad, y la estatura del individuo, como también patologías óseas, intentamos relacionar estos marcadores con su contexto temporal y cultural. Dada la presencia de rasgos particulares de este individuo que lo diferencian de su contexto poblacional, reflexionamos sobre la necesidad de considerar estos casos dentro de las reconstrucciones bioarqueológicas, ya que ayudan a comprender situaciones que dentro de un enfoque poblacional pueden pasar desapercibidas.

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“…Portugal, 84, Santiago de Chile, Chile 1 3 1 3 large megathrust earthquakes frequently occur. However, the historic tsunamogenic events in the North coast is not well known yet (León et al 2019;Costa and Andrade 2020), although the identification of these events has fundamental implications for current understanding of the risk and potential magnitude of earthquakes in northern Chile. Regarding Atacama region, historical reports of tsunamis are available. Thus, on April 11, 1819, there was a magnitude 8.5 earthquake at sea off Caldera.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleotsunami evidence in the Bahía Inglesa coast (Atacama, Chile) based on a multi-approach analysis

et al. 2022

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The Atacama coast is located in an area with a current high risk of tsunami, and the sedimentary deposits found in the Bahía Inglesa area, in the Morro sector, clearly indicate that this was also the case in the past. This investigation analyzes a paleotsunami sedimentary deposit consisting of a block field associated with three sand lobes oriented towards land on top of a marine terrace at an altitude of 70–75 m, which originated from a tsunamigenic event occurred between interglacial periods MIS 7 (ca. 210 ± 10 ky) and MIS5e (ca. 125 ± 5 ky). The deposits have been studied using a multiple approach combining geomorphological, sedimentological, biological, and geochemical criteria. The first type of criteria clearly indicate that the energy required to move the blocks and form the sand lobes could only have been generated by a tsunami. Sedimentological criteria constitute direct evidences of a marine origin due to the presence of siliceous remains from diatom species and spicules from strictly marine sponges, while geochemical criteria, such as the stable isotope signature and chemical composition, constitute evidence of a marine intrusion.

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Geo-archaeological records of large Holocene tsunamis along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in the major northern Chile seismic gap

Cited by 19 publications

References 65 publications

Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Estudio de caso: conservación y análisis osteobiográfico del material óseo proveniente del sitio Hornos de Cal, costa de Taltal, norte de Chile

Paleotsunami evidence in the Bahía Inglesa coast (Atacama, Chile) based on a multi-approach analysis

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Geo-archaeological records of large Holocene tsunamis along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in the major northern Chile seismic gap

Cited by 19 publications

References 65 publications

Did a 3800-year-old M w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Did a 3800-year-old M w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Estudio de caso: conservación y análisis osteobiográfico del material óseo proveniente del sitio Hornos de Cal, costa de Taltal, norte de Chile

Paleotsunami evidence in the Bahía Inglesa coast (Atacama, Chile) based on a multi-approach analysis

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Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

Did a 3800-year-old M _w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?