Cuba with no historical tsunami records, expert asserts

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, , Feb 18 (ACN) Given the recent occurrence of strong earthquakes in Cuba and the Caribbean, concerns have arisen among the population about the automatic triggering of the tsunami alarm.

Regarding this natural phenomenon, PhD Enrique Diego Arango, head of the National Seismological Service, said that there are no historical records in the nation; however, there is a certain risk associated with the occurrence of strong earthquakes in a segment of the North Hispaniola fault, located north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

He stated exclusively to the Cuban News Agency that some tsunamis have been generated in that area, such as those that occurred in 1840 and 1946, with thousands of deaths in the coastal towns of those countries.
He noted that volcanic eruptions, marine landslides and meteorite strikes are also likely to produce them.

In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, within the jurisdiction of the island of Tonga, in the Pacific Ocean, registered an explosive eruption that sent a column of volcanic materials and gases that reached the stratosphere and sent shock waves through the atmosphere and tsunami waves through the ocean basins, he exemplified.

The expert expressed that in the southern region of Cuba there are no seismotectonic conditions for the occurrence of tsunami-triggering earthquakes, since the existing fault is predominantly a vertical wall, in which one plate moves in relation to another in a mechanism known as sliding along the course.

Arango confirmed that in the Caribbean nation there is a danger map of these events carried out by specialists of the National Center for Seismological Research (Cenais).

In this study, the experts modeled parameters of the faults with the potential to generate earthquakes, such as depth and probable magnitude, and data on the bathymetry of the sea and the relief of the seabed and the coast, among other elements, in order to calculate how the waves would arrive, estimated time and possible penetration of the sea.

According to the research, the most exposed localities are Maisi, Baracoa and Moa, located in the northeastern tip, and the beaches on the north coast of the eastern half, including those located in Cayo Saetia, Guardalavaca and Cayo Coco.

The map, Diego Arango emphasized, made it possible to analyze the possible scenarios, structural, non-structural and functional vulnerability of these demarcations, so that the Civil Defense would know and be prepared to act if necessary.

The population can access these models on the Cenais website, and also know in real time on several web pages the record of the monitoring of the sea level.

The specialist indicated that according to international protocols, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake or higher on the Richter scale occurs, the tsunami alert is automatically activated, from which each country reviews the data and adopts measures.

Arango urged the population not to pay attention to fake alarms and to be attentive to the guidelines of the Civil Defense and to the information issued by the mass media and the pertinent institutions.

A tsunami is a group of waves in a body of water of high energy and variable size that occurs when a large body of water is vertically displaced by some extraordinary phenomenon.