An international research team was able to detect an ancient earthquake, which occurred 3800 years ago, equal to the most powerful earthquake recorded in the world so far, causing a huge tsunami that pushed humans who lived off the coast of the Atacama Desert in Chile to a long migration.

Earthquakes occur when two tectonic plates rub against each other and rupture between them.

Tectonic plates are the upper crustal layers that are about 100-150 km thick, and move slowly and permanently.

According to the new study, which was published in the journal Science Advances on April 6, the strength of this earthquake was about 9.5 degrees on the Richter scale, and it produced a huge tsunami, and these huge waves were so powerful that they moved rocks the size of cars for great distances, The tsunami hit countries as far away as New Zealand.

The team also found, according to a press release published by the University of Southampton and participating in the study, that this earthquake caused the northern coast of Chile to rise about 2,000 meters above sea level.

Sediments left by the massive tsunami in Chile 3800 years ago (University of Southampton)

Journey of a thousand years

To reach these results, the team studied a number of marine sediments and fossils of organisms that lived in the sea, and it was found that they moved into the sea due to the tsunami, and the researchers used these data to estimate the effects of this earthquake.

The team also discovered the presence of stone buildings destroyed by the waves lying under the tsunami deposits, which belonged to the communities that lived on the coast of the Atacama Desert at that time.

According to the study, a more in-depth survey showed that a massive social disruption followed the earthquake, as societies moved inland away from the shore, and a whole thousand years passed before people returned to live on the coast again, which is a very large period of time, especially for societies that depended on the sea in food.

The most powerful earthquake recorded in the history of measurement occurred in 1960 in Chile (French)

The most powerful earthquake in history

It is strange that the most powerful earthquake recorded in the history of measurement occurred in 1960 in Chile as well, near the city of Valdivia in the south, where the tectonic plate of the Pacific Ocean sinks under the plate of South America.

This earthquake recorded the same strength as the old earthquake (9.5 degrees on the Richter scale).

The earthquake occurred in the evening, and resulted in a tsunami with a height of about 25 meters (8-storey building) and traveled to separate areas such as Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeastern Australia and the state of Alaska, and caused great loss of life, as it caused the death of about 3 thousand people with material losses exceeding Billion dollar.