January 21, 1954 Tsunami: Mar del Plata, Argentina

Reference #12898:

[...] understand what happened at 11 a.m. on January 21, 1954 on the coast of Mar del Plata, when a succession of giant waves caused panic among bathers and left a line of wounded.

Medina, from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the UBA, and Dragani and Violante, from the Naval Hydrography Service under the Ministry of Defense, came to the conclusion that "it was not a tsunami, according to the classical definition, and that it is highly probable that it was a tsunami caused by meteorological causes".

"That day, the atmospheric pressure data at sea level provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States (NOAA) indicate that there was a frontal storm system in the region spreading eastward. Both by field observations and by numerical modeling it has been verified that, associated with such frontal systems, atmospheric gravity waves propagate over the Buenos Aires coastal region", says the report.

Reference #12901:

Three huge waves that arrived in a row raised the level of coastal waters in Mar del Plata by one meter. The strong current towards the coast flooded a dry riparian strip about 50m wide, the breakwaters were submerged despite the mid-downspout tide, a boat was on the verge of sinking due to a whirlpool originating under its keel and, near from the shore, bathers in a previously calm sea were left without a foot while those who ran along the beach were swept away by the waves.

Eleven people needed to be rescued due to the beginning of asphyxia by immersion, and more than a hundred, treated for having suffered various contusions.

Note: above is unofficial translation from original Spanish