Report on the NW of Iquique Chile tsunami of April 1, 2014
Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics for Disaster Management,
International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University

Introduction

On April 1, 2014 at 23:46:46 (UTC) a Mw 8.2 magnitude earthquake in the off shore Iquique region of Chile as a result of shallow thrust faulting near the plate boundary interface between the Nazca and South American plates. This earthquake generated a tsunami observed on Pacific coastlines near the epicenter.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) issued the first regional tsunami warning related to this event at 23:55 (UTC). Later on five more bulletins were issued to expand the regional warning and report recorded tsunami wave activity. The regional warning was cancelled on April 2, 2014 at 04:43 UTC. Tsunami waves were recorded to be of 2.01m in Pisagua, Chile and 2.11m for Iquique, Chile. Also tsunami amplitude of 1.83m was recorded in Arica, Chile.

Tsunami propagation model

Case 1

The star shows the location of the epicenter and the red points are the aftershocks recorded in the first 5 hours after the event

Click on the links for details on each scenario

Far-field propagation (Pacific Ocean) English Spanish
Near-field propagation (Peru & Chile) English Spanish

Case 2 (Best agreement)

The star shows the location of the epicenter and the red points are the aftershocks recorded in the first 5 hours after the event

Click on the links for details on each scenario

Far-field propagation (Pacific Ocean) English Spanish
Near-field propagation (Peru & Chile) English Spanish

News related to the event

CNN
BBC

Resources

  • Mw8.2 - 95km NW of Iquique, Chile (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program)

    • Contact (Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics for Disaster Management)

  • Erick Mas, Assistant Professor (mas@irides.tohoku.ac.jp)
  • Bruno Adriano, Ph.D. student (adriano@geoinfo.civil.tohoku.ac.jp)
  • Shunichi Koshimura, Professor (koshimura@irides.tohoku.ac.jp)

    • Acknowledgments

    We thank Dr. Yushiro Fujii (BRI, IISEE) for his support and collaboration.
    This work is funded by JST-JICA SATREPS project (Peru & Chile)

    Other useful links

  • International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University (IRIDeS)
  • International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IISEE)
  • Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC)