February 19, 1965 Tsunami: Southern Chile

1965, February 19. The edifice of Yate volcano, a dissected stratocone in the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone, has experienced multiple summit collapses throughout postglacial time restricted to sectors NE and SW of the summit. The largest such historic event occurred on 19th February 1965 when ~6.1x106 m3 of rock and ice detached from 2,000-m elevation to the SW of the summit and transformed into a debris flow. In the upper part of the flow path, velocities are estimated to have reached 40 m s.1. After travelling 7,500 m and descending 1,490 m, the flow entered an intermontane lake, Lago Cabrera. A wavemaker

of estimated volume 9+3x106 m3 generated a tsunami with an estimated amplitude of 25 m and a run-up of ~60 m at the west end of the lake where a settlement disappeared with the loss of 27 lives. The landslide followed 15 days of unusually heavy summer rain, which may have caused failure by increasing pore water pressure in rock mechanically weathered through glacial action. (reference #10345)

Yate volcano is a late-Pleistocene, glacially dissected basaltic-andesite stratovolcano with Holocene parasitic vents... No historical eruptions are known from Volcán Yate, although the fresh morphology of its satellitic cones suggests an historical age. A non-eruptive volcanic landslide in 1965 produced a debris flow that reached Lake Cabrera, causing a tsunami that destroyed a settlement and caused 27 fatalities. (reference #2432)