We were woken yesterday morning by the house shaking… According to the USGS (link) a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, with an epicentre 20km east of Lebu was responsible. The excitement continued with the purchase of our third and fourth spades of the trip. If you’re thinking of digging holes in South America, we’d suggest avoiding Brazilian spades.
We’ve spent a couple of days investigating the area around Tirua. Locals told us that the February tsunami travelled 3 or 4 kilometres up the river valley, carrying several houses inland. The tsunami deposited dark grey sand in a layer up to 25cm thick (right). We found further sand layers in exposures along the side of the river that might be evidence for older tsunamis.