Title
Historical tsunami deposits in Peru: sedimentology, inverse modeling and optically stimulated luminescence dating
Date Issued
14 August 2013
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
The entire coast of Perú was surveyedto document deposits of historical tsunami. Evidence of four tsunami was found. At Puerto Casma, in northern Perú, a graded, heavy mineral-rich layer with shell- and rock fragments was detected. OSL dating revealed an age of 0.37 ± 0.03 ka (1615 to 1667 AD). Inverse modelling of tsunami onshore flow parameters indicates a flow depth of ∼6 m and a flow speed of ∼8 m/s at a distance of ∼60 m from the shoreline. For the Chimbote earthquake of 1619 AD, a tsunami was not listed in the historical tsunami catalogues, although it is seen as a predecessor of the 1996 Chimbote earthquake and tsunami. Hence, this study may provide the first evidence of a local tsunami triggered by this event. A graded, shell-rich event layer that contains cobbles with attached marine organisms was found at Vila Vila in southern Perú. This layer was dated to 0.17 ± 0.04 ka (1797 to 1871 AD) and is most probably the result of the 1868 Arica tsunami. Two additional event layers found in Boca del Río (southern Perú) were dated 2.26 ± 0.37 ka (615 BC to 119 AD) and 1.98 ± 0.23 ka (207 BC to 255 AD). Thus, the layers record for the first time tsunami much older than the events listed in tsunami catalogues. These two events exhibit similar parameters with flow speeds of 7–8 m/s and depths of 6 m in a distance of 460 m from the present shoreline. The time that passed between the events is similar to the recurrence interval of the two Arica tsunami of 1604 and 1868 AD, hence giving evidence of another prehistoric earthquake and tsunami couplet.
Start page
31
End page
44
Volume
305
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84874398573
Source
Quaternary International
ISSN of the container
10406182
Sponsor(s)
Fieldwork on was funded by DFG grant (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) BA 1011/32-1. INGEMMET (Instituto Geológico Minero y Metallurgico Geological de Perú) provided help in organizing the field trip and financially supported CB. Thanks to M. Frechen (LIAG Hannover) for helpful discussions on OSL ages and commenting on the manuscript. S. Riemenschneider (LIAG Hannover) supported us during sample preparation. We acknowledge B. Jaffe (USGS) who supplied us with the latest version of the TsuSedMod inversion model and R. Weiss (Virginia Tech) for his support during modeling. We also thank C. Augustsson (Jena) for her help with CL analysis and for critically reading the manuscript. We appreciate the support from N. Catto, L. Borrero and the anonymous referees.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus