Tsunami Hazard in Central America : Historical Events and Potential Sources. San José, Costa Rica, 23-24 June 2016.

Abstract

Central America lies between two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic through the Caribbean Sea. Although it has no records of great earthquakes (~8.0 to 9.0), a tsunami catalogue based on historical references for Central America lists more than 50 entries. Tsunamis caused damage and casualties in 1882 off the Caribbean coast of Panama, in 1991 in Costa Rica and Panama and in 1992 in the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Coastal population has vastly increased in recent decades, along with tourism, increasing total exposure to tsunami. The outcomes of this meeting, organized by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), are initially intended to contribute with sound science inputs to the project "Building resilient communities and integrated Early Warning Systems for tsunamis and other ocean related hazards in Central America", funded by the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO) implemented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and national counterparts in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, in close cooperation with Panama and Costa Rica.