Earthquake Ecuador-Colombia 1906

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Earthquake Ecuador – Colombia 1906
Earthquake Ecuador-Colombia 1906 (Ecuador)
Bullseye1.svg
Coordinates 1 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  N , 80 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  W Coordinates: 1 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  N , 80 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  W
date January 31, 1906
Time 10:36 ( UTC-5 )
Magnitude 8.8  M W
depth 35 km
epicenter Eastern Pacific
(approx. 70 km west of Esmeraldas, Ecuador)
country Ecuador, Colombia
Affected places

Esmeraldas, Tumaco

Tsunami 6 m
dead ~ 1000

The earthquake in Ecuador and Colombia in 1906 occurred on January 31st at 10:36 am off the west coast of Ecuador and Colombia . To date, it is one of the most strongly measured megathrust earthquakes in the world . It appeared at the interface between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate and caused a 6-meter tsunami that killed between 500 and 1500 people. The epicenter was about 70 km from the border between the two countries in the Pacific and had a magnitude of 8.8 (M w ). The tremors had the same strength as the earthquake in Chile in 2010 and were observed along the coast of Central America as far as San Francisco , Hawaii (USA) and Japan .

Effects

According to documents at the time, the earthquake caused the greatest damage in the province of Esmeraldas (Ecuador), in cities such as Esmeraldas , Rioverde , Limones , La Tola and in the Tumaco region (Colombia). According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) site, this earthquake caused damage as far as Santiago de Cali (Colombia) and Otavalo (Ecuador) and was still felt in Maracaibo (Venezuela).

According to the USGS, the height of the tsunami waves caused by the earthquake exceeded 5 meters in the Tumaco area and reached the coasts near the epicenter about 30 minutes after the earthquake. According to reports from this period, several tsunami-related waves struck the Esmeralda area and hours later were also seen in Bahía de Caráquez and Guayaquil. The study carried out by Espinoza and published in Acta Oceanográfica del Pacífico in 1992 found that “the tsunami waves on the low and flat coasts from Río Verde to the north were very, very destructive. All houses on the beach and in the estuary of the Santiago and Mataje rivers were destroyed, and around 1,000 to 1,500 people died. More than 23 houses were destroyed in La Tola. In Esmeraldas the river burst its banks and flooded the low-lying residential areas of the city. "

Eyewitness reports

In an article by Rudolph and Szirtes published in 1911 describing the effects of the earthquake of January 31, 1906, witnesses in the Tumaco region report: "It was impossible to stand upright without holding on to something." According to a journalistic report: “They were all thrown to the ground. The whole island was in motion and all the houses rocked from side to side like a ship on a rough sea, so you had to fear that at any moment they might collapse and bury you under their rubble. The movement in the area was so strong that it was impossible to move. ”According to other reports, the church bells in Guayaquil rang for more than 80 seconds. The earthquake lasted more than two minutes.

background

This earthquake was one of many that in the subduction zone occurred before Ecuador and the collision of the oceanic plate of Nazca with the South American continental plate are due. Ecuador is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire , which is one of the areas with the highest seismic activity on the planet and has experienced at least three major earthquakes (greater than 8 M w ) in recent years , such as the 2004 Sumatra earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 M w , the earthquake in Chile in 2010 with a magnitude of 8.8 M w and the earthquake in Japan in 2011 with a magnitude of 9.0 M w in 2011, which were not only characterized by the generation of tsunamis.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nelson Pulido, Masahiro Yoshimoto, Ana Milena Sarabia: Broadband wavelength slip model of the 1906 Ecuador-Colombia megathrust-earthquake based on seismic intensity and tsunami data. In: Tectonophysics . Volume 774, January 5, 2020, DOI: 10.1016 / j.tecto.2019.228226 (English).
  2. ↑ M 8.8 - 1906 Ecuador-Colombia Earthquake. In: earthquake.usgs.gov . Accessed May 10, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ M 8.8 - 1906 Ecuador-Colombia Earthquake: Impact. In: earthquake.usgs.gov . Accessed May 10, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ a b Terremoto de Esmeraldas de 1906 - Uno de los Sismos más grandes de la Historia reciente. In: igepn.edu.ec . January 30, 2012, accessed May 10, 2020 (Spanish).

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