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a cataclysmic Earthquake That shook it Caribbean Late 14th century and beginning tsunamiAccording to a new study of coral skeletons, that could help prepare for such future disasters In the area.
Research published in journal geophysical research paper Found that between 1381 and 1391 an earthquake greater than magnitude 8.0 shook the northeastern Caribbean and triggered a tsunami northward. British Virgin Islands,
“Tsunami floods northern islands Lesser Antilles during the last centuries before Columbus,” scientists including those at the University of Washington wrote in the study.
“This is the only known example of a tsunami caused by a fault in the Puerto Rico Trench,” he said.
Researchers found coral skeletons from that period scattered hundreds of meters deep on Anegada Island.
Flooding caused by the tsunami likely scattered these coral skeletons, according to scientists, who located the epicenter of the earthquake in the nearby Puerto Rico Trench.
This study may help support ongoing efforts to prepare for future Caribbean tsunamis.
“If you’re designing a school or a hospital near the coast, you want to know if a very large earthquake is likely to occur, and you want to design the building to withstand it,” said study author Brian Atwater of the University of Washington.
Most of the British Virgin Islands are protected by a broad, shallow continental shelf; waves lose energy as they move across this expanse, making tsunamis less likely to hit Caribbean coasts.
However, Anegada is different, researchers say.
They say its sea floor slopes steeply toward the trench, making the island more dangerous.
Since written records of the northeastern Caribbean region go back five centuries, no evidence of a tsunami has been found from the Puerto Rico Trench.
Scientists began surveying this area only after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than a quarter million people.
The sudden disaster prompted authorities to investigate the Atlantic coastline.
After years of work, they found signs of similar activity on Anegada.
The latest study offers a time frame for medieval tsunamis, based on how old the coral was when it died.
This time frame was estimated based on measurements of uranium incorporated by coral skeletons from seawater, which turns into thorium.
“This radioactive decay enables dating of young coral skeletons to the nearest few years. Here we use this established dating method to bracket the timing of the tsunami between the years 1381-1391 Common Era,” the scientists explained.
They concluded, “Dating can aid in the discovery of related flood accounts in the British Isles, and it can be applied to communicating tsunami hazards in the Caribbean.”