Scientists discover ancient M9.5 earthquake in Chile that triggered major social disruption in the Atacama Desert – Now extrapolate for overdue Cascadia and New Madrid

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The earthquake, 3800 years ago, had a magnitude of around 9.5 and the resulting tsunami struck countries as far away as New Zealand where boulders the size of cars were carried almost a kilometer inland by the waves.

The cataclymic event caused an exceptional social disruption reflected in contemporary changes in archaeological sites and triggering resilient strategies along these coasts.

A 3800-year-old M9.5 earthquake triggered major social disruption in the Atacama Desert, Chile
A 3800-year-old M9.5 earthquake triggered major social disruption in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Map via Science paper

A new study has discovered that an ancient super-earthquake took place in Northern Chile, on the same scale as the largest recorded quake in history.

The earthquake, 3800 years ago, had a magnitude of around 9.5 and the resulting tsunami struck countries as far away as New Zealand where boulders the size of cars were carried almost a kilometer inland by the waves.

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Here the abstract of the Science paper:

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 Mw ~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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Earthquakes happen when two tectonic plates rub together and rupture – the longer the rupture, the bigger the earthquake. Previously, the largest known event in the world happened in 1960 in Southern Chile.

It had been thought that there could not be an event of that size in the north of the country simply because you could not get a long enough rupture,” explained Professor James Goff, Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton who co-authored the study. “But we have now found evidence of a rupture that’s about one thousand kilometres long just off the Atacama Desert coast and that is massive,” he continued.

 

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Yikes. Right now, a slow slip event is currently hitting along that same Cascadia Subsduction Zone.

Moreover, scientists are predicting that the Cascadia earthquake that is going to rock the Pacific Northwest sometime in the future is likely to be a greater magnitude than this, possibly magnitude 10…

The one nobody talks about is the New Madrid fault line. It runs across southern Missouri and Illinois… but they don’t know exactly where it is. We are all waiting for another one like the 1811-1812 earthquakes that absolutely leveled parts of St. Louis, MO. It was listed as 7.2-8.2 in intensity. Geologists pretty much said we are overdue for another big one. May never happen, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of time.

I really don’t want to be around to find out what that feels like. [Science, Univ. of Southampton]

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1 Comment

  1. When the 9.9 quake hit the Cascadia soon than later, Destruction is process to build better and updated cities like in Saudi Arabia or Japan or else where… Destruction for constructions and constructions we must have destruction. Iran mass riot is coming food shortages in Iran, India, EU , Russia and world will go soon to global Martial Law . World War 3 will happen but nations will use and inspect weapons for World War 4 how to fight it. Food is weapon will control you and who controls oil will control world.make that pantry now now food prices in world is 25 percent low.

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