Abstract
The occurrence of tsunami waves on the eastern Caribbean Venezuelan coasts during 5 Venezuelan (local) earthquakes (01-IX-1530, 15-VII-1853, 29-X-1900, 17-I-1929 and 9-VII-1997), have been confirmed through the search and evaluation of written accounts by primary sources (eye witnesses) of tsunami inundation during these events. Among the outcomes of this new assessment are: 1) the run-up heights of several of those tsunamis have been substantially reduced. In fact, maximum run-up heights for the 5 tsunamis are: 5-7 m at Cumaná for the 1530 event, 5 m at Barlovento and 3 m at the Neverí mouth for the 1900 tsunami, 3 m at western Cumaná for the 1853 and 1929 events and about 1 m for the 1997 earthquake. 2) These new estimates on wave heights for local earthquakes restrict the search for tsunamites by trenching and coring to mainly the first 500-m-wide strip from the coastline in low-lying flatlands. The source of these tsunami waves may be complex. Some are surely the result of coastal-submarine sliding (1929 AD, 1997 AD), tectonic slip on active strike-slip (or normal oblique slip) faults (1530 AD, 1900 AD) or combination of tectonic slip and sliding (1853 AD). Appropriate numerical modeling of tsunami wave generation, migration and inundation are urgently in need to understand these tsunami mechanics.
Highlights
The 1983 National Inventory of Geologic Hazards [Singer et al 1983] and the 1999 Catalog of Felt/Destructive Venezuelan Earthquakes (1530-1998); [Grases et al 1999] reliably report the occurrence of tsunami waves on the Caribbean Venezuelan coasts, or phenomena that might be interpreted as substantial sea level modifications in the region, during local, regional and extra-regional earthquakes, as well as related to other natural phenomena
We narrow down the focus of this investigation in 4 ways: 1) the tsunami source is an earthquake; 2) the earthquake has happened on a local (Venezuelan) tectonic source; 3) Eyewitness accounts provide characteristics of the tsunami; and 4) the tsunamis must have affected the eastern coasts of Venezuela
Concluding remarks The first striking commonality from the historical evaluation of eyewitness accounts is that inundation for all these earthquakes are reported at river mouths or settlements on their mouths (Figures 3 and 11): Tuy, Río Chico, Guapo, Neverí, Manzanares
Summary
The 1983 National Inventory of Geologic Hazards [Singer et al 1983] and the 1999 Catalog of Felt/Destructive Venezuelan Earthquakes (1530-1998); [Grases et al 1999] reliably report the occurrence of tsunami waves on the Caribbean Venezuelan coasts, or phenomena that might be interpreted as substantial sea level modifications in the region, during local, regional and extra-regional earthquakes, as well as related to other natural phenomena. This research is mainly substantiated by a documentary assessment, which includes last century pertinent photographs to contextualize the event in time and space, all supported with fieldwork observations on topography, coastal geomorphology, river morphology and hydrology, geological and natural coastal environments, and anthropogenic (cultural) aspects. All this is carried out as to recreate the prevailing conditions at the time of occurrence of each of the 5 events, to which we would apply the ITIS 2012 [Lekkas et al 2013] and Imamura-Iida magnitude scale [Iida, 1963]
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