Tsunami Animation: Valdivia, Chile, 1960 (rotating globe)

The largest earthquake ever recorded by instruments struck southern Chile on May 22, 1960. This 9.5 magnitude earthquake generated a tsunami that crossed the Pacific Ocean, killing as many as 2000 people in Chile and Peru, 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii, and 142 people in Japan as well as causing damage in the Marquesas Islands (Fr. Polynesia), Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Our animation adapts the earthquake source of Fujii and Satake (2012) to show how this tsunami may have propagated in the Pacific Ocean. The animation ends with a transition to an "energy map" summarizing the changes in open-ocean sea level height predicted by our real-time tsunami forecast model (RIFT).

To see how this tsunami compares with two recent tsunamis from Chile, please watch    • Tsunami Animation:  Three Tsunamis Fr...  

(Mercator version:    • Tsunami Forecast Model Animation: Chi...  )