The reason why the earthquake accrued is the Nazca Plate has been colliding and subducting underneath the South American plate for thousands of years. The 1960 Chile earthquake was caused by the Nazca plate releasing tension and descending 15 meters underneath the South American Plate. The earthquake accrued because of plates. The people of the area knew to expect a tsunami and most evacuated the coast immediately. The earthquake caused huge landslides of debris down the mountains of the region, as well as a series of tsunamis in the coastal region of Chile. The shock is generally agreed to have had a magnitude of 9.5, though some studies alternately proposed that it may have been 9.4 or 9.6.
The epicenter was near Valdivia, Chile some 700 kilometers south of Santiago. It caused localized tsunamis that severely battered the Chilean coast, with waves up to 25 meters. The honor of greatest earthquake of all time goes to the 1960 Chile earthquake because scientists were able to ‘catch this one on tape. In other words, there have been a lot of really big earthquakes throughout human history, but this one they were able to measure, record and verify its ground motion strength.
The main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawaii. Waves as high as 10.7 meters were recorded 10,000 kilometers from the epicenter, and as far away as Japan and the Philippines. The enormity of the seafloor shifts that caused the tsunamis was such that the waves that arrived nearly 15 hours later in the Hawaiian Islands 6,200 miles away still crested at nearly 35 feet at landfall in some places.
The waves caused millions of dollars of damage at Hilo Bay on the main island of Hawaii, where they also killed 61 people. Chile is known as a hotspot for earthquakes. Chile expected to have a tsunami after the earthquake. The Chilean earthquake that hit during the early morning hours of February 27 has brought searing images of devastation; and international news coverage has shown scenes of looting and arson incidents occurring in its immediate aftermath. There was another earthquake before and after 1960. The earthquake of 2008 in Chile was not as big as 1960 but not as little as ones before. Chile has had a lot of earthquakes. Almost every 5 years an earthquake occurs in Chile.
The reason why the earthquake accrued is the Nazca Plate has been colliding and subducting underneath the South American plate for thousands of years. The 1960 Chile earthquake was caused by the Nazca plate releasing tension and descending 15 meters underneath the South American Plate. After the earthquake people expected to have a tsunami. Chile had a lot of earthquakes for the past 100 years.
Reference
- http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/27/chile-earthquake-tsunami
- http://www.extremescience.com/greatest-earthquake.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake
