ZONAS OSCURAS EN EL SISTEMA DE ALARMA DE ADVERTENCIA DE TSUNAMI EN CHILE

Abstract

The Chilean territory has an extensive coastline -about 80.000 km of coast including the territory of its islands - which is an important fact to consider in the event of the occurrence of a tsunami. The Chilean authorities, fully aware of the vast maritime territory, have developed a tsunami warning system. This system constitutes a state responsibility, and its control has been entrusted to the national emergency office -Ministry of Interior- (ONEMI) and hydrographic and oceanographic service of Chilean navy (SHOA). This article deals with experiences carried out in order to activate the warning systems, generating fictional telluric events and/or historical telluric events capable of triggering tsunami occurrences. It also proposes a working hypothesis that will allow monitoring the response of the state agencies, through the procedures established by law in the Republic of Chile. Our research delivers results that allow us to affirm that there are areas for hypothetical events that could generate tsunamis in which the to carry out this research we have used a software called STLAT based on simplified equations of the propagation of a tsunami wave, which has allowed us to get quick results. We have also carried out tests with official data which have shown that the alarm system was not able to respond appropriately to the 8.4 M Atico event that occurred in Peru in 2001.