2010 Chilean Earthquake By: Matt Boles
An 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile near the coast on February 27, 2010 at 3:34 local time. It was caused by the Nazca plate colliding into the South American plate and going below the South American Plate. The Epicenter was located 8 km west of a town called Curanipe.
The Nazca plate is subducting under the south american plate at an average of 70 mm per year so it is not surprising that an earthquake would occur in that area. only 525 people died which is actually low considering the magnitude of the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The earthquake had serious economic effects on the country of Chile as it caused 30 billion dollars worth of damage just for Chile and it costed millions of dollars for other countries mostly from the tsunami.
Chile is a primarily Spanish speaking country and is 88 percent white and non-indigenous. 9.1 percent Mapuche, Aymara is .7 percent. Chile in particular the west coast of Chile closer to the Nazca plate has historically been a seismically active area, Chile was unlucky to host the largest earthquake in recorded history in 1960 a 9.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region destroying everything in its path. Since then buildings in Chile improved and are some of the best when it comes to resisting earthquakes.
In the coming months people were questioning what went wrong in informing the public about the coming tsunami and poorly organized evacuation techniques that were responsible for most of the deaths at the hands of the tsunami.
The Tsunami following the Earthquake devastated places as far as Japan which had a few fatalities and Islands all over the Pacific were pounded by the tsunami luckily many of these islands had few inhabitants or were prepared for it.
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Credits:
Created with images by DFAT photo library - "Loading supplies in response to Chile earthquake, Sydney 2010. Photo: AusAID" • Andrés Gonzalez y nada más... - "El buey!"