Abstract:
The subduction zone of Northern Ecuador encounters four earthquakes of Mw> 7.5 in the last century. The area
has been described as a segmented rupture zone with specific boundaries. We are interested at the 12th
December1979 event. The seismic data available provided information, but most of the ruptured parameters are
unknown or not well-constrained. A tide gauge record operated at Esmeraldas is available for the event. It is the
purpose of this work to tentatively propose an accurate calibration of the rupture parameters for the 1979 event by
using the tide gauge record and numerical simulations of the derived tsunami. The area is subject to large
variations of the local bathymetry, with an underwater canyon surrounded by a shallow continental shelf, yielding
strong spatial variation of the tsunami wave speed. Thus, numerical simulations require some high degree of
precision. A temporary solution is proposed, that will be improved in the next months. Besides, it has been found
that, unexpectedly, the northern part of the 1958 event area has been re-activated.
