Don’t look at the sea?

A tsunami that put in alert the whole Pacific was not officially warned in Peru – it caused a chain of disasters.

 

By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo

 

 

FONOAFO’OU, Tonga – On Saturday, January 15^th, 2020, 17:27 Tonga Kingdom Time (0527 GMT), the Hunga Tonga -Hunga Ha’apai Volcano erupted twice in the 1-day lapse causing its structure to collapse into the sea, affecting immediately that South Pacific islander nation.

 

The column of wáter steam, ashes, and gases got to rise up to 15 miles toward the atmosphere. It was so massive that the Japanese satellite Himawari-8could capture the cloud caused by the blast as well as the shock waves it generated, even.

 

According to KNTV station, operating in san Francisco Bay Area, California, the blast power was such as it altered the atmospheric pressure values across the Pacific Ocean – wee are talking about 5318 miles length between that Polinesia sector and that U.S. West Coast portion.

 

The volcanic blast behaved like a 5.8 magnitude quake happened on the surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), raising the usual sea level up to 3.9 feet. Tonga’s capital city Nukualofa, populated 23,221 inhabitants according to 2017 Census, 48 miles to the south of the blast, was flooded in a matter of 15 minutes. The sound became heard in Alaska, 6055 miles length.

 

As the surface of the populated islands in Tonga is mostly flat, almost nobody saved from the water engulfing homes and public buildings including the Royal Palace. The local king might be evacuated to a safe place. At worst, the submarine cable that connected it by telephone and Internet broke leaving without  communications to the world.

 

At the same time, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC, in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, issued a warning for the U.S. West Coast (including Alaska) and Canada. Australia (3900 miles from Tonga) and New Zealand (1480 miles from Tonga) had waves, and Chile and Ecuador also got ready.

 

 

Apparent late reaction

Peru, amid both South American nations, didn’t issue a timely notification judging the Twitter timelines of the Hydrography and Navigation Direction (DHN as its initials in Spanish), that watches the so-called Sea of Grau behavior, as less as its principal entity, Peruvian Navy (MGP as its initials in Spanish), as it recognized to the media on January 16^th, almost one and a half day after the volcano blasted in Tonga.

 

However, there were actually effects in the Peruvian Coast. A surge affected El Chaco Veach, Parácas District, Íca (6430 miles from Tonga) and two women died inside a truck that the sea dragged in Naylamp or La Huaca Beach, Pimentel District, Lambayequé (6381 miles from Tonga). High waves aalso were reported during the Saturday, January 15^th, along the Peruvian shores.

 

In its statement, MGP said the fishing and the tourism were suspended, some beaches closed, and that a situation diagnosis was running as the sea came back to normal. Twitter users, including the Congresswoman Susel Paredes, reacted against the military authorities because of the delay.

 

The Peruvian soap-operas & movies writer Eduardo Adrianzén commented jokingly on his Twitter account and regarding the Don’t Look Up motion picture, that the government just would notify one day after a meteorite fell, despite the Peruvian actor André Silva’s character already has warned the disaster. Silva features the film starred by Leonardo Di Caprio and Meryl Streep.

 

 

If it warns, it’s about it’s coming on

A tsunami, a Japanese Word translated as harbor wave, is the also immediate consequence on the sea surface nearby any coast which origin may be a quake or a slide under the sea independently its distance, even provided the coast line is directly oriented where the event happened. Said otherwise, if the quake shakes Japan, Portugal won’t feel any effect because the Americas are in the middle.

 

The event can ddisplace such as water amount that, by compensation effect, it can cause little waves in open sea that they can gain height as they approach to the shores as the the soil under the sea loses depth. Unlike a quake, that happens without previous warning, or a volcano, that may not happen despite a previous warning, the tsunami ever issues a previous warning… and it happens.

 

The better documented scientific evidence of this feature is the so-called Valdivia Event, that affected the Pacific Ocean in 1960. On May 22^nd, 15:11 cLT (1911 GMT), a 9.6 magnitude earthquake, the largest registered in the last century, shook the entire Chilean central and southern coast. Ten minutes later, a 438-mile section between Concepción, Bío-Bío, and Chiloé, Los Lagos, was affected by huge waves. In Valdivia Area, Araucanía, those ones became measuring 33 feet and penetrated until one mile inland.

 

In Hawaii, learned of the cataclysm, the entire southern coast put in alert. The tsunami arrived 15 hours later after travelling 6665 miles. Hilo Harbor was the most affected with waves measuring until 33 feet height. Despite the warning of authorities, about 60 people died. In Valdivia, Chile, the casualties are estimated over 1500.

 

50 years later, the Pacific put in alert again on February 27^th, 2010, after the Concepción, Chile earthquake, and March 11^th, 2011 in Northern Japan. Both also caused significant tsunamis that hardly slapped the epicenter zones. In both cases, while the Japanese, Chilean, and Hawaiian authorities reported constantly the people, MGP didn’t issue timely warnings neither.

 

 

Peru’s got experience, indeed

However, the Peruvian Navy do have a specialized office: the Tsunami Warning National Center (CNAT as its initials in Spanish) – according to its website, it promises updated information around the clock, everyday. In fact, if you go to its platform, you could see automated maps, the most not generating warning, and each one set chronologically to the happening of any seismic event in Peru as well as across the Pacific.

 

But not all the quakes cause a tsunami. According to the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP as its initials in Spanish), the two parameters that at least apply to the Peruvian Coast are: the event has registered a magnitude equal or up to 7.0, its epicenter is located in the sea. Although three significant ones have been registered since the 21^st century began, the better documented one is the tsunami that followed the earthquake in Pisco, Íca, on August 15^th, 2007.

 

A report by the National Institute of Civil Defense details how the see retreated first about 660 feet in the epicenter area –located 45 miles to the west of Pisco—to come back like a 1.7-feet-height surge. But 20 minutes later, two big waves entered until 1650 feet inland. The second wave’s height, the strongest, is estimated in 3.9 feet. But maybe one of the worthiest data is the tide gauge registered that night (PET) at a navy base in La Punnta, Callao (146 miles from Pisco).

 

The quake shook 18:40 PET (2340 GMT). The first wave arrived to Callao at 19:34 PET (0034 GMT, August 16^th, 2007), that means 54 minutes after the seismic event happened. The data interpreted by DHN establish the wave ran 84 miles per hour (mph) average speed with 15-to-20-minute lapses and 26 miles wavelength.

 

Those data can’t be assumed as a constant to all the quake & tsunami events because they are going to depend on their magnitude and power plus the shape of the marine & coastal soil. However, it does evidence that the Peruvian authorities already own detailed monitoring tools & methodologies, at least, 15 years ago. Then, the question many people ask is what did not work on January 15^th, 2022.

 

An MGP spokesman has defended on the media by explaining that the geomorphology of Chile and Ecuador is different than Peru, so their acting protocols are not the same. He added both countries own more island territory, and he mentioned specifically Easter Island, Chile (4123 miles from Tonga) and Galápagos Islands, Ecuador (5819 miles from Tonga) where tsunami waves did register on January 15^th, 2022 morning (local time).

 

But, is it true that Peru owns a different geomorphology? Although the 1914 miles of shores use to have a steeper submarine slope  due to the existence of two pits in the central and southern coast (that extends to Chile), it’s the most occidental nation of South America and its most western edge is Balconés Point, in La Brea, Piura (6346 miles from Tonga).

 

The evident is that at least in Peru, there was no official tsunami warning but indeed many evidences of the sea anomalous behavior, including the water retreat at some beaches as video-amateurs recorded. Also, La Pampilla Refinery, in Ventanilla, Callao (6427 miles from Tonga) was hit while a ship downloaded petroleum causing a 6000-gallon spill that polluted, preliminarily, many beaches 17 miles to the north. Crabs and guano birds were deadly affected.

 

Because of a blurry warning related to the Tonga event, Peru’s Ombudsman has asked to open an investigation to MGP. Meanwhile, a Peruvian Government’s supervising bureau ruled La Pampilla’s operator Repsol to suspend operations as an investigation and an environmental remediation process are conducted. At this story’s deadline, a local PR official in Peru said the company doesn’t recognize any responsibility.

 

With reports of RPP Noticias and RTVE Noticias plus NBC News. © 2022 Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved. Comment this in the box below or on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Would you like to learn more? Write us at factortierra@gmail.com