January 15, 2022 Tsunami: Rio DE LA Plata Estuary, Argentina

NOTE: This meteotsunami event coincided with the eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano which erupted at 04:14:45 UTC on January 15, 2022. The eruption generated globally observed tsunami waves from atmospheric waves as well as the eruption itself.

Reference #14248:

long-duration, wide-ranging, and high-intensity heatwave event (January 9 to 16, 2022) in South America […] on January 15, an atmospheric front north of the Rıo de la Plata estuary was associated with local atmospheric gravity waves, generated as advancing warm air displaced air vertically.

It is likely that at Mar del Plata, San Clemente del Tuyu, and La Paloma, the sea-level perturbations were primarily induced by local atmospheric gravity waves, leading to the formation of local meteotsunamis.

The wavelet spectra show no evidence of either a remote meteotsunami or an oceanic tsunami in the Rıo de la Plata estuary.

it is possible that it overlapped with local meteotsunamis or the oceanic tsunami within the study area. In such a case, the presence of a remote weak meteotsunami would be difficult to distinguish from other, more energetic waves occurring within the same frequency band. This potential overlap may represent the main limitation of the present study.

the absence of remote meteotsunamis in the Rı´o de la Plata estuary could be attributed to its shallow waters and limited geographical features.

Notably, if this meteotsunami had not coincided with the eruption of the Tonga volcano, it might have gone unnoticed.