Mizunami International Symposium on Earthquake Casualties and Health Consequences

15-16 November 2010, Mizunami, Gifu, JAPAN

THE GREAT CHILE EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCE

OF MAY 21-22, 1960: AN ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN CASUALTIES BY
EVENT, LOCATION AND CAUSE
1
A. Pomonis
1
Greece Representative, Risk Management Solutions Inc.
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

On the 50th anniversary of the great Chile earthquake of May 22, 1960 we re-visit the effects of this earthquake
and the earthquake that preceded it a day earlier. In this paper we give emphasis to the human casualty aspects
of these earthquakes as we perceive that considerable confusion exists about the extent of the life losses of the
May 21-22, 1960 earthquakes. An effort is made to separate the fatalities by event, location and cause (i.e.
ground shaking, landslide, mine collapse and tsunami). We appreciate that 50 years later it is quite difficult to
ascertain accurately what may have happened, but we believe that this effort will at least put some of the
confusion to rest and also light a spark for other researchers to expand this endeavour with further studies.

1. TECTONIC SUMMARY

The May 1960 southern Chile sequence of earthquakes began with a temblor of magnitude 7.3 at 06:02 am
local time (LT) on Saturday May 21st in the Arauco peninsula, south of Concepción and was followed by many
strong aftershocks (7 events of M>6.4). Then on Sunday May 22nd, at 03:11 pm LT, further south occurred a
great shock of magnitude 8.4, followed by over 50 aftershocks of magnitudes between 5 and 7 in the ensuing
months (Housner, 1963). The epicentres followed the main SSW-NNE tectonic features, continental in the
north, submarine in the south, separating a region which has risen (coast of Lebu) from a vast region which has
subsided. All of the above magnitudes are in the MS scale. Since the early sixties the magnitudes of these
events have been re-assessed using the moment magnitude scale (proposed by Kanamori in 1977), which is
more appropriate for large earthquakes. The moment magnitude of the May 22nd event was established as 9.5
and that of the May 21st as 8.1. The May 22, 1960 earthquake remains to this day the largest ever recorded on
Earth, followed by the March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska and the December 26, 2004 off northern
Sumatra earthquakes with moment magnitudes of 9.2 and 9.1 respectively.

The great 1960 Chile earthquake of May 22 was a mega-thrust event that ruptured ~1,000 km of the
Nazca-South America plate boundary, involving up to 40 m fault slip and up to 5.7 m vertical coastal uplift. It
started at 38.2°S and propagated southward to the Nazca-Antarctic-South America Triple Plate Junction at
46°S. A historical earthquake of similar location and rupture length occurred in 1575, with palaeoseismic
records documenting similar events with a recurrence period of ≈300 years (Melnick et al., 2008).

2. HUMAN CASUALTIES OF THE MAY 21-22, 1960 CHILE EARTHQUAKE

Due to the proximity in time and space of several events in this seismic sequence significant
uncertainty-misinformation exists about the effects of these earthquakes, especially in the number, geographic
location and cause of the resulting human casualties.

2.1 Confusion about the location and number of victims and their causes

There is considerable confusion about the fatalities of the May 21-22, 1960 earthquakes as seen in many
earthquake catalogues and scientific publications, in spite of the fact that a Unesco report (Rothé, 1969)

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Mizunami International Symposium on Earthquake Casualties and Health Consequences
15-16 November 2010, Mizunami, Gifu, JAPAN

explained that the early estimates of casualties talking of up to 10,000 dead or missing (e.g. BSSA, 1960) were
greatly overestimated. Rothé’s statement is as follows: “The official death roll rose to 660 dead and 717
missing, numbers much lower than those first announced in the press”.

To this day several catalogues mention that this earthquake may have killed up to 6,000 people. The
contemporaneous ISC Bulletin, The International Seismological Summary says that more than 2,000 were
killed and 3000 injured. Utsu's catalogue of deadly earthquakes (Utsu, 2002) gives 5,700 as the most likely
figure of deaths in Chile although it also mentions 1,743 or 2,231 as possible fatalities in Chile. The NGDC
report (Dunbar et al., 1992) states: “2,231 deaths or 3,000 deaths, or 5,700 deaths (different references)”. The
EM-DAT database (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, Université Catholique de Louvain,
Belgium, http://www.em-dat.net) gives 6,000 fatalities. Berz (1988) and Lomnitz (2004) both suggest that the
May 21-22, 1960 earthquakes in Chile caused 3,000 deaths. The USGS web page for the 1960 Chile earthquake
sequence (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1960_05_22.php) states “approximately 1,655
killed, 3,000 injured in Southern Chile”, but in its worldwide Shakemap Atlas analysis by Allen et al. (2009) a
preferred fatality figure of 1,000 was used.

2.1.1 Effects and known fatalities of the May 21, 1960 earthquakes
The seismic sequence begun with the shallow focus MS=7.3 earthquake at 06:02 am (LT), on Saturday May 21,
1960 in Arauco peninsula. This earthquake was followed by three strong aftershocks of magnitude 6.5 to 6.8 in
the next three hours. All four earthquakes were centred within the region 37.30 – 38.00S and 71.00-73.00W.
Many buildings that were damaged in the first shock collapsed during the MS=6.8 aftershock that followed at
06:53 am. The coastal area between Arauco and Lebu was uplifted by more than 1m in places. Major damage
occurred at Concepción, especially in the lower parts of the town (intensity IX). Damage was also severe at
Talcahuano (intensity IX), Coronel (intensity IX), Lota (intensity IX) and Lebu (intensity X). The Faculty of
Architecture of the University of Chile carried-out a study of the effects of the earthquakes in Concepción,
Talcahuano, Lota and Coronel. A very brief summary of this is presented by Steinbrugge and Flores (1963),
covering 6,125 of the 18,500 residential buildings in Concepción. The building damage statistics were grouped
by eight structural types. Loss of life that most likely is linked to the May 21 event occurred among other places
in (listed from North to South): Parral 2, Chillán 5, Tomé 5, Talcahuano 10, Concepción 125 (and 300 injured),
Lota 18, Coronel 3 and Curanilahue 1.

2.1.2 Effects and known fatalities of the May 22, 1960 earthquakes
This seismic sequence took place from 04:10 am (LT) on Sunday May 22 and until 10:00 am (LT) on Monday
May 23. During these 30 hours there were 25 earthquakes centred within the region 37.80 – 43.60S and
71.60-76.00W. The greatest of these occurred on May 22, at 6:32 am (MS=7.2) and 15:11 pm (MS=8.3) not far
offshore of Valdivia and were both of shallow focus. Ground shaking was all but uninterrupted for nearly 17
minutes (14:56 to 15:13 pm). Tectonic subsidence of some 1.5m occurred in the Valdivia region. Large
landslides occurred and in some regions there was remarkable consolidation and settling of soft ground. The
succession of these large destructive earthquakes in the space of two days made it impossible to draw
event-specific isoseismal maps. The worst areas affected by the May 22 events were though further to the south:
Valdivia (intensity X), the lower part in the town of Puerto Montt (intensity X-XI), Río Negro (intensity IX-X),
Temuco (intensity VIII), Osorno (intensity VII-VIII), Puerto Saavedra (intensity VII-VIII), Llanquihue
(intensity VII-VIII) and Villarica (intensity VII). The great earthquake generated large ocean waves; these
tsunamis began some 15 to 30 minutes after the main shock and continued for several hours and in some places
were over 7m high. Loss of life that is linked to the May 22 events occurred due to tsunami (t), landslides (l)
and building collapse (b) among other places in (listed from North to South): Dichato 2 (t), Lebu 9, Angol 3 (b),
Peihueco 350 (l, incl. 50 missing), Puerto Saavedra 50 (t), Mehuin 30 (t), Valdivia 15 (b), Corral Bajo 100’s (t),
La Union 1 (b), Osorno 8 (b), Puerto Varas 8 (b), Peulla 18 (l?), Quenuir 105 (t), Maullin 3 (t), Pangal 15 (t),
Puerto Montt 30 (b, t), Ancud >50 (t). Some other towns and villages that were devastated by the tsunami but
the death toll is unknown at present are: Toltén, Queule, Niebla, Los Molinos, Bahia Mansa, Pucatrihue and
Maicolpué, Castro, Chonchi and Queilén. La Nación newspaper of Chile (May 25, 1960) says that 500 people
could have died in Queule and that most of the 2,000 inhabitants of Toltén could be dead, while Time Magazine
(June 6, 1960) states that in Queilén 630 of the 800 inhabitants were killed by the tsunami. We cannot yet

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Mizunami International Symposium on Earthquake Casualties and Health Consequences
15-16 November 2010, Mizunami, Gifu, JAPAN

confirm these reports.

3. BREAKDOWN OF FATALITIES IN CHILE BY EVENT AND CAUSE

In the previous section we have seen when, where and how many of the fatalities in those two fateful days have
taken place. We have identified the event, location and cause for 817 cases of which up to 368 (incl. 50
missing) were due to landslides, at least 205 due to tsunami and up to 244 due to building collapse and other
causes. In addition we are certain that several hundreds died due to the tsunami in Corral, Ancud, Toltén,
Queule, Chonchi, Queilén and other towns and villages. Based on the above we believe that the figures
reported by Rothé (1969) are probably closest to the truth among those existing in the literature. The breakdown
of the combined life losses from the May 21-22, 1960 earthquakes by cause (building collapse or damage,
landslides and tsunami) is shown in Fig. 1. We estimate that the tsunami waves caused ~760 fatalities (incl.
many missing), landslides (in Peihueco and possibly in Peulla) caused 368 fatalities (incl. 50 missing), while
building collapse, falling debris and other causes (e.g. fire following, heart attacks etc.) were responsible for
~250 deaths.

18.1%

Building
Collapse/Damage
Landslides
55.2%
Tsunami
26.7%

Figure 1 Breakdown of the combined life losses in Chile from the May 21-22, 1960 earthquakes by cause

For those injured we know the location of 568 of the total 3000 reported. Information on the level of injuries
(number hospitalized etc.) is not known. The three main cities of Concepción, Puerto Montt and Valdivia have
reported 300, 130 and 100 injuries respectively (18% of the total), most related to building collapse and falling
debris, 170 deaths occurred in these three cities (12.5% of the proposed total).

4. HUMAN CASUALTIES DUE TO THE TSUNAMI IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Human casualty statistics from the affected countries are summarized in Table 1. The tsunami waves of May
22nd propagated across the Pacific. In the Hawaiian Islands, Hilo city was the hardest hit. The tsunami caused
61 deaths and 282 people sustained injuries. All this was in spite of the issuance of an official warning by the
Honolulu Magnetic Observatory more than 5 hours before the arrival of the tsunami and the public
dissemination of the warning by the Civil Defence Agencies and Police. A study of the behaviour of the
residents of the inundated area revealed that only a third of the people evacuated to high ground. In the
Philippines the effects of the tsunami are reported as 20 dead and around 12 people missing (incl. 9 fishermen
drowned in a tsunami generated whirlpool in Canarimes Island). The tsunami waves arrived when the island of
Luzon was drenched and flooded by tropical storm Lucille which caused approximately 258 deaths.

According to Rothé (1969) in Japan, the coast of Honshu was ravaged and in total there were 100 dead, 85
missing, 855 injured and 1678 homes destroyed. In other reports the number of dead rises to 138 or 142 without
mention of missing persons. The tsunami affected area covered the whole Japanese Archipelago from Hokkaido
to Okinawa but the waves were particularly high on the northeast shores of Honshu and south-eastern shores of

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15-16 November 2010, Mizunami, Gifu, JAPAN

Hokkaido, especially among other places in Mutsu (6.3 m), Ofunato (4.9 m) and Onagawa (4.3 m). Waves
kept arriving for several hours on May 24th 1960, but in places like Onagawa, Miyako and Kiritappu no one
died, because most people run to higher ground. In Okinawa Island, which suffered the most damage among the
Ryukyu Islands, 3 people died.

Table 1 Reported human casualties and missing persons due to the Pacific-wide tsunami
Country/Region Fatalities Missing Injuries
Hawaii (Hilo) 61 0 282
California 2 0 ?
Japan ~140 ~45 ~855
Philippines 20 12 ?
TOTAL ~223 ~57 >1137

4. CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion in Table 2 we summarize the estimated fatalities for the May 21st and May 22nd earthquakes by
cause of death (incl. the casualties in the affected countries across the Pacific Ocean). Uncertainty still exists
about the number of tsunami victims in Chile and their location. Study of contemporaneous local newspapers to
elucidate these events is advisable.

Table 2 Breakdown of the fatalities by event and cause of death.

Total Building
EVENT DATE Fatalities Tsunami Collapse Landslides
May 21, 1960 Arauco peninsula earthq. ~175 0 ~175 0
May 22, 1960 Valdivia earthq. ~1,200 ~760 ~72 ~368
May 22-24, 1960 Pacific-wide tsunami ~280 ~280 0 0
COMBINED TOTAL ~1,655 ~1,040 ~247 ~368

REFERENCES

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ShakeMaps for Selected Global Earthquakes. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 7 No. 3, July 2009.
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BSSA (1960). Seismological Notes. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 50, No. 4,
609-612, October 1960.
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Viewpoint. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 53, No. 2, 225-307, February 1963.
Utsu, T. (2002). A list of deadly earthquakes in the world: 1500–2000. In International Handbook of
Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, ed. W. K. Lee, H. Kanamori, P. C. Jennings, and C. Kisslinger,
691–717. Amsterdam and Boston: Academic Press.

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Mizunami International Symposium on Earthquake Casualties and Health Consequences
15-16 November 2010, Mizunami, Gifu, JAPAN