ISS004-E-6128
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Camaná, Peru, and Tsunami Vulnerability: A tsunami washed over
the low-lying coastal resort region near Camaná, southern Peru,
following a strong earthquake on June 23, 2001. The earthquake was
one of the most powerful of the last 35 years and had a magnitude of
8.4. After the initial quake, coastal residents witnessed a sudden
drawdown of the ocean and knew a tsunami was imminent. They had less
than 20 minutes to reach higher ground before the tsunami hit. Waves
as high as 8 m came in four destructive surges reaching as far as 1.2
km inland. The dashed line marks the approximate area of tsunami
inundation. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, and the combined
earthquake and tsunami killed as many as 139 people. This image
(ISS004-E-6128)was taken by astronauts onboard the International
Space Station on 10 January 2002. It shows some of the reasons that
the Camaná area was so vulnerable to tsunami damage. The area has a 1
km band of coastal plain that is less than 5 m in elevation. Much of
the plain can be seen by the bright green fields of irrigated
agriculture that contrast with the light-colored desert high ground.
Many of the tsunami-related deaths were workers in the onion fields
in the coastal plain that were unwilling to leave their jobs before
the end of the shift. A number of lives were spared because the
tsunami occurred during the resort off-season, during the daylight
when people could see the ocean drawdown, and during one of the
lowest tides of the year.
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ISS004-E-6249
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Kiritimati, Kiribati (Christmas Island): Pronounced
"Ki-ris-mas," Kiritimati Island has a large infilled lagoon that
gives it the largest land area (125 square miles, 321 square km) of
any atoll in the world. Captain Cook named the atoll Christmas Island
when he arrived on Christmas Eve in 1777. Used for nuclear testing in
the 1950s and 1960s, the island is now valued for its marine and
wildlife resources. It is particularly important as a seabird nesting
site-with an estimated 6 million birds using or breeding on the
island, including several million Sooty Terns. Rainfall on Kiritimati
is linked to El Niño patterns, with long droughts experienced between
the wetter El Niño years. This mosaic is based on images ISS004-E-6249,
ISS004-E-6250,
ISS004-E-6251
and ISS004-E-6252.
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