Chile 2010The earthquake struck and destroyed the small earthquake prone country of Chile on the 27th of February. This was the largest recorded one in the past 50 years, with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale. The earthquakes focus point was 35km deep below the pacific ocean, which then caused a tsunami. The most damage occurred at the 2nd capital city of Concepcion which is located 150km away from the focus point. The seismic waves released during the Chilean fault movement traveled around the world several times and triggered tiny earthquakes in central California.
Tsunami warning were sent out to Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia and New Zealand. |
Tectonic Summary |
Chile is a small country that is prone to large earthquake and has a long history of large earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.0 and larger on the Richer scale. Chile is positioned between two very large plates, the Nazca plate and the South American plate and is in between Argentina and Bolivia. The two plates move about 88mm per year. The two plates were converging (going towards) each other, which then caused a strike slip due to the Nazca plate subducting (oceanic crust goes under the continental) the South American plate. The Nazca plate was moving below the South American plate which is then pushing the South American plate upwards.
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More about the earthquake |
The earthquakes epicentre shook the country of Chile for about 1 and a half minutes. Shock waves were felt in Argentina with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale. It is thought that another large earthquake larger than the one in 1960 will strike again along the coast during the future sometime due to all of the pressure built up along the subduction zone.
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