Sometime in the 1400s, the sea washed large coral heads far ashore on Anegada.
United States Geological Survey researcher Dr. Brian Atwater believes the cause was a tsunami, he said on March 9, when he presented his recent research into what might have caused the anomaly.
Dr. Atwater’s study of the sister island is ongoing, but his fieldwork began in 2008, he told officials from the Department of Disaster Management, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour, the Deputy Governor’s Office, the National Parks Trust, and the Town and Country Planning Department.
He returned to Anegada again in 2011, six months after Hurricane Earl, and worked to identify storm-surge limits and examine geologic effects of the storm.
Historical records provide evidence of major earthquakes occurring near the Virgin Islands in the 1700s and 1800s, and Dr. Atwater’s research aims in part to distinguish the geologic records of tsunamis from those of storms.
Anegada was selected for this research because of the evidence for “catastrophic overwash” between 1200 and 1450 and between 1650 and 1800, according to DDM.
See the March 17, 2016 edition for full coverage.
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