According to recent research, an ancient mega-earthquake with a magnitude of 9.5 rocked the Chilean coast some 3,800 years ago, producing a 9,000-kilometer-wide tsunami that was felt all the way to New Zealand. According to Science Alert, the quake, which is said to have occurred in northern Chile, was so powerful that it raised land formations and sent mankind into hiding for 1,000 years.
Professor Diego Salazar of the University of Chile led the research, which was published last week in Science Advances. According to ScienceAlert, Professor James Goff, Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and co-author of the study, explained, ‘It had been considered that there could not be an event of that scale in the north of the nation simply because you could not create a long enough rupture.’
‘However, we have recently discovered indications of a gigantic breach around a thousand kilometers long just off the shore of the Atacama Desert,’ he said. According to the experts, the large plate rupture produced by the quake forced the northern Chilean shoreline to rise up, resulting in a massive tsunami. They based their idea on the discovery of marine sediments and insects in the Atacama Desert, both of which are normally found in the sea.
‘The Atacama Desert is one of the world’s driest, most inhospitable places, and discovering evidence of tsunamis there has always proven tough,’ Goff was quoted as saying. ‘However, we discovered traces of marine sediments and a number of beasties that would have been living quietly in the sea until being driven onshore. And we found all of these quite high up and a long-distance inland, so it couldn’t have been a storm that placed them there,’ he continued. The researchers hope that their findings will aid in comprehending earthquake and tsunami threats in the Pacific area, as well as how severe the repercussions will be the next time such a super-shock occurs.
‘While this had a significant influence on people in Chile, the South Pacific islands were uninhabited 3800 years ago when they were ravaged by the tsunami. However, they are all now densely inhabited, and many are major tourist locations, so if such an event occurs again, the results might be disastrous unless we learn from our mistakes’, Goff concluded his statement.
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