Publication Date:
2013-06-28
Description:
Central America has been struck by at least 49 tsunamis between 1539 and 1996. As many as 37 of these events occurred at the Pacific Coast, and 31 were generated by earthquakes. Some of the events have been destructive, but despite this, tsunamis are an underrated hazard in Central America: people are not aware that they are at risk and even recent tsunami events have been forgotten. Recent studies, following the destructive tsunami occurred in Nicaragua in 1992, have revealed that Central America is a moderately tsunamigenic zone that is mainly affected by tsunamis triggered by earthquakes, especially at the Pacific coast where the Middle American Trench runs parallel to the coast. In this study, a statistical first and then a deterministic analysis for the Pacific coast of Central America has been carried out. The statistical approach aims to estimate the Gutenberg-Richter coefficients of the main seismic tsunamigenic regions of the area in order to assess the annual rate of occurrence of tsunamigenic earthquakes and their corresponding return period. A deterministic approach is then used to compute the tsunami run-up distribution along the coast corresponding to a given annual rate of occurrence of tsunamigenic earthquakes.
Electronic ISSN:
2195-9269
Topics:
Geography
,
Geosciences
