Although Mexico is located in a highly seismic zone, there is no record of a large number of tsunamis, although there are data that some have generated great devastation on the country’s coasts.
Although Mexico is on a highly seismic territory, tsunami formation On the coast of the country it is not very common.
According to the document History of the Tsunamis of the Secretariat of the Navy, more than 60 such phenomena have been recorded in the last 284 years.
In addition, he points out that in the recent history of Mexico there is no report of such destructive tsunamis, although he does not rule out the possibility of one occurring.
“In fact, there is evidence that in 1787 a large earthquake of magnitude 8.4 occurred in San Sixto, Oaxaca, which generated a highly destructive local tsunami. ”
During the eighteenth century, four tsunamis occurred, in the nineteenth century more than 10 and in the twentieth century more than a dozen, all produced various damages, ” the document details.
When was the last tsunami that hit Mexico?
Although the Navy registered two tsunami alerts in 2014 and 2017, both were canceled, so the last time a phenomenon of this nature hit Mexican coasts was April 18, 2014.
That day says the Navy document, the National Seismological Service reported an earthquake with magnitude 7.2 located 40 kilometers south of Petatlán, in Guerrero.
“The earthquake, which occurred at 9:27 a.m., was felt strongly in Mexico City, in Guerrero, Morelos, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Jalisco, Oaxaca, and other locations,” the text said.
The Navy reports that the quake left effects in Guerrero and in some colonies in Mexico City.
” There was a small tsunami with variations that ranged around 30 centimeters as recorded in the tide gauges of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo and a few centimeters in Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo,” he adds.
The strongest Tsunami in Mexico
The strongest tsunami that left more damage than there is a record occurred on March 28, 1787, when an earthquake of magnitude greater than 8.0 with an epicenter near San Marcos, Guerrero, shook the country.
The Navy collects a letter from the mayor of Igualapa, Guerrero, published in the Acapulco Gazette in which he recounts the tsunami.
“The sea was seen running in retreat and then growing and overflowing over the pier, repeating this several times for 24 hours, at the same time that the land was filled with frequent earthquakes. On the open beach, the waters came out of the box from the sea, spilling with force and dragging large numbers of cattle, which perished.
Some coastal people, such as the butler of the estate of Don Francisco Rivas, alderman of Oaxaca, were able to save their lives by climbing up the trees until the waters were removed. Some fishermen in the Alotengo bar, at eleven o’clock that day, saw with astonishment that the sea was retreating, leaving in more than one extension league discovered lands of different colors, cliffs and underwater trees, and then retreating with the speed had been removed, covered with forests waves from the beach, where more than two leagues, plunged leaving the branches of trees to the return home , many and varied fish dead; some of the fishermen perished, and others could be saved, “wrote the mayor.
Records indicate that the highest storm surge reached four meters high.
A few days later, on April 3 of that same year, what is considered the most intense aftershock of the March 28 earthquake shook the country, leaving more damage at different points.
A few days later, on April 3 of that same year, what is considered the most intense aftershock of the March 28 earthquake shook the country, leaving more damage at different points.
Source: milenio
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