1941 Andaman Islands earthquake

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1941 Andaman Islands earthquake
India relief location map.jpg
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UTC  time1941-06-26 11:52:03
ISC  event 900863
USGS-ANSS ComCat
Local dateJune 26, 1941 (1941-06-26)
Local time17:22:03 IST
Magnitude7.7–8.1 Mw
Epicenter 12°30′N92°34′E / 12.50°N 92.57°E / 12.50; 92.57
Areas affected India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka
Max. intensity EMS-98 VII (Damaging) [1]
TsunamiYes
CasualtiesFew

The 1941 Andaman Islands earthquake struck the Andaman Islands on June 26 with a magnitude of 7.7 to 8.1. Details of this event are poorly known as much of Southeast Asia was in the turmoil of World War II. The quake caused severe damage in the Andaman Islands. The tsunami it triggered was reported along the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India and British Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). There may have been damage and deaths in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand due to the tsunami.

Contents

Effects

The earthquake partially collapsed Cellular Jail and destroyed other masonry buildings at Port Blair. [2] Ground slumping, soil liquefaction and sand volcanoes were reported. Roads, bridges, embankments, seawalls and jetties were seriously damaged. Large fissures occurred in the ground. Large trees were tilted and uprooted. According to eyewitness accounts, these trees fell in a westernly direction. There was an unspecified number of deaths only described as "few". Shaking was felt over a very wide area; felt reports also came from Colombo, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. [3] Islands located in a passage between Little Andaman and South Andaman Islands subsided by over 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). [2]

Tsunami

Although no tide gauges existed, the estimated tsunami heights were 0.75 m (2 ft 6 in) to 1.25 m (4 ft 1 in) along the east coast of India. [4] It is claimed that 5,000 drowned in India but no reliable attribution for such figure exists. News reports misattributed these deaths with a storm surge, while The Times of India did not mention a tsunami while reporting the event. No news or scientific reports made mention of a large death toll from the tsunami. It was also unlikely that a 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tsunami could result in a high death toll. Reports of the tsunami effects along the Andaman Islands also did not mention any fatalities. [4]

Geology

The earthquake occurred in a convergent boundary zone that separates the Indian plate from the Burma plate. The Indian plate subducts obliquely beneath the Burma plate at a rate of 6.7 cm/year. It was previously assigned a magnitude of 8.1 to 8.7. [5] The International Seismological Centre assigned this event as having a moment magnitude of 8.0. [6] Further research suggest the earthquake did not occur as a result of rupturing the subduction zone, rather, it was a normal-faulting intraslab earthquake located within the Indian plate beneath the islands. [5]

See also

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The 1953 Suva earthquake occurred on 14 September at 00:26 UTC near Suva, Fiji, just off the southeast shore of Viti Levu. This earthquake had an estimated magnitude of Ms 6.8 and Mw 6.4. The earthquake triggered a coral reef platform collapse and a submarine landslide that caused a tsunami. Eight people were reported killed.

The 1762 Arakan earthquake occurred at about 17:00 local time on 2 April, with an epicentre somewhere along the coast from Chittagong to Arakan in modern Myanmar. It had an estimated moment magnitude between 8.5 and 8.8 and a maximum estimated intensity of XI (Extreme). It triggered a local tsunami in the Bay of Bengal and caused at least 200 deaths. The earthquake was associated with major areas of both uplift and subsidence. It is also associated with a change in course of the Brahmaputra River to from east of Dhaka to 150 kilometres (93 mi) to the west via the Jamuna River.

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The 1761 Lisbon earthquake and its subsequent tsunami occurred in the north Atlantic Ocean and south of the Iberian Peninsula. This violent shock which struck just after noon on 31 March 1761, was felt across many parts of Western Europe and in Morocco. Its direct effects were observed even far north in Scotland and Amsterdam, and to the south in the Canary Islands of Spain. The estimated surface-wave magnitude 8.5 event was the largest in the region, and the most significant earthquake in Europe since the Great Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

During April 1819, the area around Copiapó in northern Chile was struck by a sequence of earthquakes over a period of several days. The largest of these earthquakes occurred on 11 April at about 15:00 local time, with an estimated magnitude of Mw 8.5. The other two events, on 3 April between 08:00 and 09:00 local time and on 4 April at 16:00 local time, are interpreted as foreshocks to the mainshock on 11 April. The mainshock triggered a tsunami that affected 800 km of coastline and was also recorded at Hawaii. The city of Copiapó was devastated.

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The 1979 Yapen earthquake occurred on September 12 at 05:17:51 UTC. It had an epicenter near the coast of Yapen Island in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Measuring 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale and having a depth of 20 km (12 mi), it caused severe damage on the island. At least 115 were killed due to shaking and a moderate tsunami.

The 1941 Hyūga-nada earthquake occurred off the coast of Kyushu, Japan at 19:02 local time on November 19. The earthquake measured 8.0 Mw  and had a depth of 35 km (22 mi). A JMA seismic intensity of 5 was observed in Miyazaki City and Nobeoka City in Miyazaki Prefecture, and Hitoyoshi City in Kumamoto Prefecture. Due to the earthquake, a tsunami with a maximum wave height of 1.2 m was observed in Kyushu and Shikoku. The tsunami washed away many ships. Twenty-seven homes were destroyed and two people were killed. In Miyazaki, Ōita and Kagoshima prefectures, telephone services were disrupted. Subsidence by 8 cm (3.1 in) was recorded at Hyūga, Miyazaki. At Nobeoka, stone walls and embankments were damaged while roads cracked. It was felt as far as central Honshu.

References

  1. ↑ Martin, S.; Szeliga, W. (2010), "A Catalog of Felt Intensity Data for 570 Earthquakes in India from 1636 to 2009", Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Electronic Supplement (table S2), 100 (2), Seismological Society of America: 562–569, Bibcode:2010BuSSA.100..562M, doi:10.1785/0120080328, archived from the original on 2016-11-12, retrieved 2017-03-15
  2. 1 2 Ortiz, Modesto; Bilham, Roger (2003). "Source area and rupture parameters of the 31 December 1881 M w = 7.9 Car Nicobar earthquake estimated from tsunamis recorded in the Bay of Bengal". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 108 (B4): 2215. Bibcode:2003JGRB..108.2215O. doi: 10.1029/2002JB001941 .
  3. ↑ National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (1972), Significant Earthquake Information (Data set), NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
  4. 1 2 National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service: NCEI/WDS Global Historical Tsunami Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Tsunami Event Information (Data set), NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7
  5. 1 2 Okal, Emile A. (2019). "The Large Andaman Islands Earthquake of 26 June 1941: Why No Significant Tsunami?". Pure and Applied Geophysics. 1 (7): 2869–2886. Bibcode:2019PApGe.176.2869O. doi:10.1007/s00024-018-2082-8. S2CID   134095505.
  6. ↑ ISC (2022), ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900–2009), Version 9.1, International Seismological Centre

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