Magnitude 8.1 Ms Max. intensity IX Tsunami Yes Number of casualties 2,550 | Areas affected Dominican Republic Peak acceleration .4g (est) Date 4 August 1946 | |
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Similar 1946 Vancouver Island ear, 1647 Santiago earthquake, 1868 Arica earthquake, 1938 Banda Sea earthquake, 1746 Lima–Callao earthquake | ||
The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake occurred on August 4 at 17:51 UTC near Samaná, Dominican Republic. The mainshock measured 8.1 on the surface wave magnitude scale and an aftershock occurred four days later on August 8 at 13.28 UTC with a magnitude of 7.6. A tsunami was generated by the initial earthquake and caused widespread devastation across Hispaniola. The tsunami was observed in much of the Caribbean and the southern Atlantic Ocean.
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Damage
The earthquake killed around 100, but left some 20,000 people homeless. The death toll was unusually low as it coincided with a holiday in the afternoon, when most people were outdoors. It caused severe damage in the northern Dominican Republic from Samana to Santiago and Puerto Plata. Slumping and sand blows were observed in the Yaque del Norte and Yuna River Valleys. The earthquake was felt strongly in parts of Haiti and Puerto Rico, and to a lesser extent in the Virgin Islands and eastern Cuba.
Tsunami
The earthquake also caused a tsunami which struck at Matanza, near Nagua (Julia Molina), where a 2.5–5-metre (8–16 ft) high wave drowned a number of people and affected an area of land several kilometres inland. The tsunami associated with the quake killed 1,600–1,800 people, for a total of about 2,550 fatalities.
A small tsunami was also recorded by tide gauges at San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and in the United States at Daytona Beach, Florida and Atlantic City, New Jersey.