"3""e71 - - 'Catalogue of TSUNAMIS on the e,:,`•s;eane 8 4.1: n EASTERN SHORE of the • 1 PACIFIC OCEAN S.L.SOLOVIEV Er CH.N.G0 Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences No. 5078 Catalogue of tsunamis on the eastern shore . of the Pacific Ocean S. L. Soloviev and Ch. N. Go Original title.: Katalog tsunami na vostochnom poberezh'e tikhogo okeana In: Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, 204 pp., 1975 Original language: Russian Available from: Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information National Research Council Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlA 0S2 1984 293 typescript pages ii Correct citation for this publication: Soloviev, S. L., and Ch. N. Co. 1975. A catalogue of tsunamis on the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean (1513-1968). Nauka Publishing House, Moscow, USSR, 204 pp. Can. Transi. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 5078, 1984. iii Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 5078 Catalogue of tsunamis on the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean S. L. Soloviev and Ch. N. Go Translated from Russian by the Slavonic Languages Section Translation Bureau Department of the Secretary of State of Canada S. O. Wigen, Compiler Institute of Ocean Sciences Department of Fisheries and Oceans Sidney, B.C., Canada V8L 4B2 1984 V .TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction J. Islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kermadec 7 New Zealand, Australia, Southern Part of the Pacific Ocean 19 Chile, Peru, Southern Ecuador 33 Northern Ecuador, Colombia, Panama 162 Central America (from Costa Rica to Mexico) 173 USA, Canada, Southeast Alaska 200 Hawaiian Islands 231 List of basic tsunami parameters 246 Appendix. Conversion of old measures into metric 260 References 261 Abbreviations 283 vi .Preface to English Edition The catalogue .of Pacific tsunamis was prepared mainly in 1964-1974. A definite stimulus to Undertake this work was the appearance of the Tsunamis" compiled'with my participation "Annotated Bibliographyand on edited by the International Union of Geodesy and . Geophysics in Paris in 1964. The bibliography was an important clue to many previously unknown publications on tsunamis 'dispersed_in different national and.interna- tional editions. The desire to have under hand all original descriptions of tsunamis in a compact form is experienced by every Investigator of tsunamis. My first step in this direction was the compilation of. a11 actual data on tsunamis observed on the Pacific shores of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands, which was done by the end of the 190s. The present edition is the product of double translation; at first from English, French, German and Spanish into Russian and then from Russian into English. Of course the better way would be the translation directly from original languages into English, or. citation English texts, because a danger always exists in accumulation of errors during each translation. But recompilation of the catalogue in such a manner would require several years of hard work and it would be almost impossible. I have had the opportunity to read the manuscript of the English translation and my impression is that the general sense of description is passed correctly, although there are some minor inexactitudes. Some errors found in the Russian text have been removed during the transla- tion. But the catalogue itself is still open to discussion and additions. My sincere thanks to the staff of the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, Canada, and especially to Mr. Sydney O. Wigen for efforts to realize this English edition of my, together with Mr. Ch. N. Go, book, and I hope that this edition will be useful in further investigations of such important problems as tsunamis. Prof. S. L. Soloviev Moscow, 1982 vii Foreword and Acknowledgement In their two-volume catalogue, Catalogue of tsunamis on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean (1974) and Catalogue of tsunamis on the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean (1975) S. L. Soloviev and Ch. N. Go have assembled the most complete descrip- tive summary of tsunamis that have struck the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Their records embrace both localized and ocean-wide destructive occurrences, and in some cases go back more that 1000 years. Knowledge of these past events is essential in making an authentic evaluation of tsunami hazard. In order to make this body of knowledge more generally available to tsunamists, the Institute of Ocean Sciences has undertaken to have these works translated into English, and to publish them for free distribution to researchers. We express our great appreciation to the authors, Soloviev and Go, for the work they have done in the compilation, and also the time and care they have taken to review and correct the translations; to The Copyright Agency of the U.S.S.R. for permission to publish; and to the Translation Bureau of the Secretary of State, Ottawa, for its concern and diligence in seeking to provide an accurate translation in a specialized technical field. In the listing of References in the original edition, papers pub- lished in Russian were listed first, followed by papers published in other languages. Titles of papers in Japanese were given in English translation and sequenced alphabetically into the second section. The same sequence is retained in this translation, but with Russian titles and sources translated into English. I would like to thank the many tsunamists who have given encourage- ment and guidance in the production of this work; to express particular appreciation to W. Hamilton, preliminary translator of the Eastern Pacific; G. Daze, principal translator; and Mary Lane, Marilee Nugent, and Partricia Straub for their sustained effort and enthusiasm in pre- paring these works for publication. For any errors that remain I accept responsibility. Sydney O. Wigen 1983 › viii Academy of Sciences of the USSR InterdePartmental Council on Seismology and Construction • Earthquake Resistant Sakhalin Integrated Scientific Research Institute Far East Scientific Centre Abstract A Catalogue of Tsunamis of the Eastern Shore of the Pacific Ocean (1513- 1968). S.L. Soloviev and Ch. N..Go, Moscow, published by "Nauke 1975 • This monograph contains descriptions of about 300 tsunamis and related phenomena which have occurred in the southern and eastern Pacific. •The monograph also describes earthquakes and other processes which have generated tsunamis. As far as possible, estimates were made of the intensity of all tsunamis, according to a special scale, as well as of coordinates of epicentres and of the energy (magnitude) of earth- quakes that generated the tsunamis. Th,_ look will be of. interest to seismologists, oceanographers, tectonic geologists, volcanists, geographers, and to inhabitants of the Pacific shores of the USSR and persons involved in various operations in coastal 'areas of the Pacific. The book contains 77 illustrations, 14 tables and 344 biblio- graphic references. -Editor7 in-chief, Corresponding Member of the USSR - Academy of Sciences, E.F. Savarenskii Copyright, "Nauka," 1975 (Russian Edition). /3** INTRODUCTION This catalogue is a continuation of the work of the authors Soloviev and Go, (1974) and includes all known factual information on tsunamis that have occurred in the southern and eastern Pacific up to 1968. In preparing the catalogue, wide use has been made of reports of earthquakes and tsunamis that have occurred anywhere in the world (Montbeillard, 1761; Hoff, 1840; Perrey, 1847, 1850, 1852, 1854 a-c, 1862 a,b, 1864 a,b, 1865, 1867, 1870 a,b, 1872 a,b, 1873, 1875 a,b; Mallet, 1853-1855; Fuchs, 1866-1870, 1872, 1874, 1878, 1879, 1881, 1883 a,b, 1885 a,b, 1887 a,b; Rudolph, 1905; Milne, 1912 b; Sieberg, 1932; Heck, 1934, 1947; Iida et al., 1967), as described in the preceding catalogue and in national earthquake catalogues (Montessus de Ballore, 1888, 1911 a, 1912, 1916; Orozco y Berra, 1888; Holden, 1898; Polo, 1899 a,b; Bobillier, 1934; Flores, 1934; Townley, Allen, 1939; Milne, 1956; Silgado, 1968; Lomnitz, 1970; and others) and in special publications. The material pertaining to this part of the Pacific was, for the most part, selected and translated into Russian by S.L. Soloviev. The catalogue includes hardly any information on the extremely severe Chilean tsunami, which occurred on May 22, 1960, owing to the great volume of factual data on it and on the earthquake which caused it. The Chilean tsunami deserves a special monograph. Limited descrip- tions are given on the well-known California earthquake of April 18, 1906; however, the data on the very weak tsunami that accompanied that quake are reproduced in full. As in the previous book, the descriptions in the catalogue are presented in chronological order by separate zones, which are arranged counter-clockwise starting with the islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Kermadec and finishing with Canada and the Hawaiian Islands. In addition to the documented tsunamis, the catalogue includes descriptions of sever- al solitary waves in the ocean and of long waves of unknown origin, des- criptions of which are encountered in the literature. For each zone an overall map is given, on which. are shown first, the geographical locations referred to in the descriptions, and second, the centres of the tsunamis - to the extent to which it was possible to establish them on the basis of the material gathered in the cataolgue. In researching this material, the archives from the following institu- tions were used: Moscow and Leningrad libraries, Main Geodetic and **Numbers in the right-hand margin mark commencement of corresponding pages in the original text - Transi. 2 Cartographic Administration, Chief Administration of Cartographic Production of the Navy, Sakhalin Complex Scientific Research Institute, Far East Scientific Centre, and Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The material presented for each occurrence is given, as a rule, in the same format: first the year and time (local) •of the earthquakes are shown, then the earthquake is described, and finally, data on the tsunamis are given.