Research Paper On Chile Earthquake

The Great Chilean Earthquake which happened in the afternoon (15:11 local time) (SMS Tsunami Warning) of Sunday May 22nd 1960 was the largest of the 20th centrury, with a magnitude of 9.5, though it is disputed that it might have been 9.4 or 9.6. (Encyclopaedia Brittanica). The earthquake was so strong that in a chart of global seismic release from 1906 to 2005, nearly 25% of the world earthquake energy in a hundred years was from the 1960 Chile earthquake (Western States Seismic Policy Council). The earthquake was the cause of one of the “most destructive Pacific-wide tsunamis,” (Disaster Pages of Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis), and the tsunami caused by it affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast

With a magnitude of 7.9, the first earthquake was powerful and caused severe damage in the Concepion area. (USGS). However, it was only a foreshock to one of the most damaging quakes ever recorded (This Day In History, 2009).

At 3:11 p.m. the next day, an 8.5-magnitude quake hit southern Chile. The epicentre of this powerful tremor was off the Chilean coast under the Pacific Ocean, as the Nazca oceanic plate was subducted 50 feet down under the South American plate. The earthquake caused huge amounts of debris to slide down the mountains of the region. It was also the reason for a series of tsunamis of the coast of Chile (This Day In History, 2009).

Severe damage from shaking occurred in the Valdivia-Puerto Montt area. Most of the casualties and much of the damage was because of large tsunamis which caused damage along the coast of Chile from Lebu to Puerto Aisen and in many areas of the Pacific Ocean. Puerto Saavedra was completely destroyed by waves which reached heights of 11.5 m (38 ft) and deposited remains of houses as much as 3km inland. Wave heights of 8 m (26 ft) caused severe damage at Corral (United States Geological

Tsunamis from the earthquake were the cause of 61 deaths and severe damage in Hawaii, mostly at Hilo, where the runup height was 10.6m (United States Geological Survey). Despite the tsunami warning system in place in the Hawaiian Islands, there were a number of deaths and injuries in Hilo. It seems that many of those killed or injured thought the siren was a preliminary warning which would be followed by another evacuation signal. They did not understand that it was a signal for them to immediately evacuate. As well as this, apparently other people chose not to evacuate immediately because the alert was not taken seriously, due to their being little or no damage with previous alerts (Western States Seismic Policy