The earthquake in Chile in April 2014, fortunately, cannot be compared with the strongest ever recorded, the Great Chilean earthquake in May 1060, whose magnitude was 9.5. The 1960 Chile earthquake claimed the lives of 10 thousand people, the cities of Concepcion, Valdivia, Puerto Montt were destroyed, and the tsunami that followed the earthquake caused tremendous damage not only to Chile, but also to Hawaii.
As you know, on the night of April 1, 2014, a strong earthquake occurred in Chile, which caused the death of several people, fires and mass evacuation from dangerous areas, and the threat of a tsunami is still present.
Earlier it was reported that on April 1 at about 4 am Moscow time off the coast of Chile there was a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.2. The outbreak was located at a depth of 10 kilometers, the epicenter was located off the coast of the Tarapaca province, 99 kilometers northwest of the city of Iquique.
A natural disaster caused power outages, collapse of non-seismic buildings, and fires. About ten people died, perhaps this figure will increase, there is evidence that under the rubble there are still victims and bodies of the dead.
As a result, the earthquake in the Pacific Ocean caused a tsunami with a height of 1.92 m.At first, seismologists warned that the tsunami threatens all countries Latin Americawith access to the sea. However, according to the latest data, the threat remains only for the coast for Chile and Peru. For Chile, the warning will remain in effect until at least 08:00 GMT on Wednesday. The authorities of these countries have already announced the evacuation from the coastal areas.
The earthquake on April 1 was the third major earthquake in this earthquake-prone region in recent times: so, on March 17 in Chile there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7, and on March 24 - a magnitude of 6.1.
And the worst earthquake that ever covered this country happened on May 21, 1960. It was named the Great Chilean earthquake and became the strongest on record. The magnitude of the Great Chilean earthquake ranged from 9.3 to 9.5.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the city of Valdivia (therefore it is sometimes called the Valdiv earthquake), 435 kilometers south of the Chilean capital Santiago. The cities of Concepcion, Valdivia, Puerto Montt were destroyed. Immediately after the earthquake, the country was covered by a devastating tsunami, whose waves reached heights of more than ten meters. The number of tsunami victims exceeded the number of victims of the earthquake itself, significant damage was caused not only to the Chilean coast, but also to the city of Hilo in Hawaii, about 10 thousand kilometers from the epicenter. Tsunami waves then reached the shores of Japan.
The number of victims was about ten thousand dead, tens of thousands were injured, more than half a million Chileans were left homeless. The damage in 1960 prices was about half a billion dollars.
(Spanish Gran terremoto de Chile), also known as Valdiv earthquake (Spanish Terremoto de Valdivia) - a powerful earthquake that occurred in the southern part on May 22 in 1960 at 15:11 local time (UTC -4).
It is believed that this natural disaster with a magnitude XII on the Mercalli scale claimed more than 6 thousand lives and left more than 2 million people homeless.
Its maximum strength was recorded in the vicinity of the city (Spanish Valdivia, 435 south of the capital), with an instantaneous tremor from 9.3 to 9.5 on the Richter scale, which makes it the strongest earthquake instrumentally recorded in history humanity. It was so strong that it was felt in different parts planets thousands of kilometers away and caused a powerful tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, the victims of which were Hawaii (USA), Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, etc.
Warming up the elements
Along with the Great Chilean earthquake from May 21 to June 6, Chile experienced a series of powerful tremors that affected a significant part of the south of the country.
It all started in the Grand Concepcion. Before sunrise on Saturday, May 21, 1960, at 06:06 a chain series of 12 strong earthquakes was recorded on the coast of Arauco province (Bio-bio region). The magnitude of their fluctuations reached 7.3-7.75 points on the Richter scale or VII on the Mercalli scale. These earthquakes caused serious damage to cities (Spanish Concepcion), Talcahuano (Spanish Talcahuano), Lebu (Spanish Lebu), (Spanish Chillán), Canyete (Spanish Cañete), Los Angeles (Spanish Los Ángeles) and Angol (Spanish Angol).
At 6:33 am, a second wave of tremors occurred, destroying buildings damaged by the previous earthquake. However, no fatalities were recorded, as a significant part of the population of the affected region left their homes en masse after the first wave of tremors.
Valdivia, 1960
Telephone communications from Santiago to the south were interrupted, and information about the tragedy was transmitted using radio signals. The president Jorge Alessandri (Spanish: Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez) immediately canceled the planned Naval Glory Day celebrations and announced the urgent development of a strategy for organizing victim assistance.
Nature itself seemed to scoff at all their attempts. First, a heavy downpour poured across the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe tragedy, which made it difficult to carry out rescue operations. And at 14:55 there was another, third earthquake. This time, water pipes were torn, as well as power lines were destroyed, which provoked numerous fires. Already, some settlements have been destroyed by 100%. But all the worst was just ahead.
"Valdiv earthquake"
A day after the tragedy, its apotheosis occurred. The next day, Sunday, May 22, 1960 at 15:11 local time, another seismic vibration occurred, the strength of which reached a record 9.6 on the Richter scale. The terrible cataclysm lasted for about 10 minutes.
Scientists later confirmed that the Great Chilean Earthquake was actually a sequence of 37 or more earthquakes, the epicenters of which stretched nearly 1,350 km. The cataclysm devastated the entire Chilean territory between Talca (Spanish Talca) and Chiloe Island (Spanish Isla de Chiloe). Those. the area of \u200b\u200bthe affected territories exceeded 400 thousand km², which exceeds the size of all of Germany.
The epicenter of this great earthquake began in the area of \u200b\u200bTemuco (Spanish Temuco) and gradually began to move south along the coast in a chain reaction.
The most affected area of \u200b\u200bthe tragedy was the city of Valdivia and its surroundings. The element almost completely razed him to the ground. Never before has humanity documented such strong tremors as were recorded here. Most of Valdivia's buildings collapsed immediately. Later, the Kalle-Kalle river overflowed its banks and flooded the central streets of the city.
In addition to Valdivia, such large cities as Concepcion, Osorno (Spanish Osorno) and (Spanish Puerto Montt) were almost completely destroyed.
Tsunami
And even that is not all. Shifts of the Nazca oceanic plate and the South American continental plate, which provoked tremors, also caused the appearance of another destructive cataclysm - the tsunami. It was from the tsunami that most of the people died.
First, at about 4:10 pm in the port of Corral, near Valdivia, the ocean level rose by almost 4 m, and then the water began to draw in quickly - an ebb tide began, dragging most of the ships in the bay into the depths.
At 16:20, an 8-meter wave hitting the coast of Chile between Concepción and Chiloe Island, moving at a speed of more than 150 km / h. Then the water receded, dragging the ruins of coastal cities and hundreds of dead peopleto hit the coast again with an even bigger wave - almost 10 m in height. One and a half kilometers from the coastline, everything was flooded. A number of small coastal settlements were completely destroyed.
Not only the Chileans suffered from this tsunami; a giant wave began to travel across The Pacific Ocean... After sailing off the coast of Chile, she moved in the opposite direction and with almost the same destructive power struck first on, then reached the Hawaiian Islands. It took her 15 hours to cover the distance of 10 thousand km from the epicenter. The tsunami on Hawaii Hilo killed 61 people.
Similar disasters were recorded in Japan, where more than 150 people died, the Philippines, New Zealand, Samoa, etc.
Effects
The Great Chilean Earthquake destroyed a large part of southern Chile. In Chiliana, only 20% of the buildings survived, Talcahuano was destroyed by 65%, and neighboring Concepcion had more than 125 dead and more than 2,000 houses flattened to the ground. Los Angeles was destroyed by 60%, Puerto Montt by 80%, and Angola by more than 82%. Valdivia and its surroundings were the most affected areas. Despite the fact that only 40% of houses were destroyed, more than 20 thousand people were left homeless, about 200 people died and almost 1000 more were lost without a trace. The cities of Tolten, Puerto Saavedra, Quila, Rahu and many others were completely wiped out.
All bridges, hospitals, schools, fire departments, banks and police stations in these cities were destroyed. Railways and asphalt pavements also became unusable. In addition, water flooded almost all the underground coal mines in the south.
In May 1960, on the Pacific coast of South America, in Chile, there were several very strong and many weak earthquakes. The strongest of them, 11-12 points (the strongest earthquake in the 20th century on the scale of the Japanese seismologist Kanamori), was observed on May 22. Its epicenter was in the south of the Arauco Peninsula. Within 1-10 seconds, a huge amount of energy hidden in the bowels of the Earth was expended. More than half of Chile's provinces were affected, at least 10 thousand people died. Destruction swept the Pacific coast for more than 1000 km. Large cities were destroyed - Concepción, which had existed for over 400 years, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, Osorno and others. The near-shore strip with an area of \u200b\u200b10 thousand km2 was depleted after ground grazing at the bottom level of the ocean and showed an overlapped two-meter layer of water. As a result of the Chilean earthquakes, 14 volcanoes began to operate.
Between 21 and 30 May 1960, a series of subsequent aftershocks killed 5,700 people and left another 100,000 homeless, destroying 20% \u200b\u200bof the country's industrial complex. The damage caused was estimated at $ 400 million. In 7 days, almost the entire countryside of the country turned into ruins. Numerous strong aftershocks and a giant tsunami have devastated more than 100,000 square kilometers of countryside in the Andes. Several million Chileans were left homeless.
Giant sea waves that originated off the coast of Chile during the 1960 earthquake reached Hawaii, covering 11,000 km in approximately 15 hours (speed - 730 km / h). A seaographer at Hilo, Hawaii, alternately noted the rise and fall of the water level at approximately 30-minute intervals. Despite the warning, these waves in Hilo and elsewhere in Hawaii killed 60 people and caused $ 75 million in damage. After another 8 hours, the waves reached Japan, once again destroying port facilities there; in this case, 180 people died. There were also casualties and destruction in the Philippines, in New. Zealand and other parts of the Pacific Rim.
The destruction wrought on the Pacific coast of Chile was monstrous. The cause of destruction was tremors, landslides, landslides, eruptions of awakened volcanoes. But no less terrible was the destruction caused by the giant tsunami waves. In Chile, not many people died from tsunami waves, except for the villages located at the mouth of the Maulín River. About a thousand people are believed to have drowned there. The tsunami washed away the port of Ankund, the capital of Chiloe Island off the coast of Chile.
Shortly after a powerful shock at 3pm, coastal residents noticed that the sea first swelled and rose well above the highest tide levels, and then suddenly surged away, and far beyond the lowest low tide. With screams of horror, the Sea is leaving! all rushed to the hills. The wave rushed further across the expanses of the Pacific Ocean. Easter Island was her next victim. The most magnificent building on the island - ahu Tongariki is a stone building made of huge blocks. The wave, born 2,000 km from Easter Island, jokingly scattered multi-ton stone blocks. Then the tsunami reached the Hawaiian Islands. Here the wave height was about 10 meters and the destruction was terrible. Residential buildings, office buildings, cars were washed away or destroyed. The tsunami killed 60 people. Sweeping across the entire Pacific Ocean, giant waves hit Japan. Thousands of houses were washed into the sea, hundreds of ships sank or were broken, 120 people became victims of a rampant water element.
Here, as one of the observers, who survived this catatrophe, describes his impressions: “At first, there was a pretty strong push. Then there was a subterranean rumble, as if somewhere in the distance there was a thunderstorm, a rumble that looked like a prat. Then I felt the vibrations of the soil again. I decided that, as it happened before, everything will soon cease. But the land continued to be supported. Then I stopped, looked at the same time at the clock. Suddenly, the subterranean jolts became so strong that I could barely hold on to my legs. The pushes all continued, the force of their incessantly trained and became more and more fierce, I did it terribly. I was thrown from side to side, like a paradox into a storm. Two cars that passed by were forced to stop. In order not to be missed, I was knocked down on my knees, and then I became four. Underground jolts did not stop. It has become even more terrible for me. Very scary ... In ten meters from me, a huge eucalyptus broke in the floor with a terrifying treacle. All the trees rocked with an incredible force, well, how could you tell you, as if they were twigs, which of all the strength shook. Make sure the dog's way is like water. I assure you, it was so! And why: then all this continued, then it became terrifying. The underground jolts were all amplified. The order, the earthmaking lasts indefinitely. "
This was the only earthquake on Earth, the consequences of which are estimated at XII points on the Mercalli or Medvedev-Karnik scales, that is, the most powerful tectonic catastrophe for the entire time of earthquake observations. It happened on May 22, 1960 at 15:11 local time (UTC-4). Its epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean near the Chilean city of Valdivia. The magnitude on the Richter scale was not determined due to the impossibility of doing this (this scale is not suitable for determining the strength of powerful earthquakes, since it is calculated only up to 8.9 magnitudes). But after Hiro Kanamori developed a scale for the magnitude of the seismic moment, the strength was still estimated and, according to various estimates, ranges from 9.4 to 9.6. Kanamori himself leans towards the average - 9.5 - which is accepted by almost all seismologists. However, the website of the US Geological Society gives a different figure - 9.6. This, in general, does not change matters - the earthquake, by any estimate, is the strongest among all on Earth since the 16th century.
Moreover, in 1960 it was not the first and not last earthquake in Chile with a magnitude of more than 8.0 (the first occurred on May 21, 1960 and led to injuries of several dozen people, the second on June 6), and in just a period of 1.5 years after the earthquake and several days before it, 68 tremors with a magnitude of more 5.7.
The earthquake was felt in different parts of the planet and was accompanied by a strong tsunami, which affected several countries in the Pacific Ocean, primarily Japan and the United States (Hawaii), as well as a powerful eruption of the Puyehue volcano.
It is believed that this disaster led to the death of 1,655 people and another 2 million people were left homeless. But these are minimal estimates, most likely the number of victims is much higher. And, interestingly, the earthquake in southern Chile in 1960 is not the most tragic page in the history of earthquakes in this country (in 1939, an earthquake occurred in the Chillan region, as a result of which more than 10 thousand people died, although in magnitude it was much weaker - 7.8 magnitudes).
THE FIRST EARTHQUAKE - PRECURSORS
Early Saturday morning - at 6 am on May 21, 1960 - in the southern part of Chile, in the Concepción region, a strong earthquake disrupted the usual way of life of the inhabitants. The epicenter was on the Arauco Peninsula in the Bio-Bio region. Its magnitude on the Richter scale was 7.4, according to a later calculation - about 8 magnitudes, the maximum intensity was X on the Mercalli scale. The cities of Concepcion, Talcahuano, Lebu, Chillán, Los Angeles and Angola were affected.
The first earthquake caused severe damage to many buildings and roads. In the morning of the next day, earth-moving occurred again in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Arauco Peninsula. The push was weaker - about 7 magnitudes. Despite a strong earthquake and destruction, there were no casualties, several dozen people were injured.
Santiago's telephone communications with the affected areas were interrupted and the first reports were received by journalist Enrico Folch, who was able to catch radio signals from the affected area. The then President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri, immediately ordered the suspension of the celebrations scheduled for 22 May. dedicated to the Day Navy (Iquique Heroes Day). I must say that this saved many lives when a stronger earthquake happened.
The government appealed for help to the residents and authorities of those parts of Chile that were not affected by the earthquake and the international community. On the afternoon of May 22, violent downpours began in southern Chile, causing flooding, and at 14:55 there was a third strong earthquake, leading to additional destruction in the Bio Bio region. While there was a lot of destruction inside the buildings, the walls mostly survived.
While the Chilean government was developing a strategy to help the affected areas, the fourth and most powerful earthquake hit, the worst in the history of the Earth.
EARTHQUAKE IN VALDIVIA ..
Hernan Olava described this earthquake as a giant cyclops, with crushing fury descending on the country. “One blow and the pumping tower collapses, the Spanish Center in Valdivia, the Cathedral, the Evangelical Church, the tax building and many others. The gigantic hammer gone mad began to strike blows left and right, leaving behind a severely damaged city.
At 15 hours 11 minutes local time on Sunday May 22, 1960, a tectonic catastrophe occurs, which has never happened in the history of mankind, breaking all stereotypes regarding the possible strength of earthquakes. An earthquake starting on May 20, starting in the Temuco area and gradually spreading south along the entire southern coast of Chile. Almost the entire subduction zone between the Arauco Peninsula (Bio-Bio region) to the Taitao Peninsula (Aisen region) was involved. The strongest shock reaches a magnitude of 9.5 on the Kanamori scale (according to other estimates - 9.6) and lasts 10 minutes, this duration is due to the huge area of \u200b\u200bthe affected area. Subsequent studies claim that, in reality, it was a series of 37 earthquakes that covered an area of \u200b\u200babout 1,350 square kilometers. The catastrophe swept huge territory from the city of Talca to the island of Chiloe. Or more than 400 thousand square kilometers.
The area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Valdivia (now the Los Rios region) was most affected. In this city, the earthquake reached an intensity of XI-XII points on the Mercalli scale. Almost 80% of the buildings in the city were destroyed, and the Calle Calle River overflowed its banks and flooded the city center.
The ensuing tsunami also swept the vast Chilean coastline between the city of Concepcion and the island of Chiloe. In the port of Corral, near Valdivia, sea level has risen by 4 meters. Before the start of the tsunami, at about 4:10 pm, the sea quickly retreated, dragging boats and cutters into the open sea, and 10 minutes later, a wave 8 meters high hit the coast of Chile. The tsunami wave speed was 150 kilometers per hour, while the number of victims was in the hundreds. 10 minutes after the first wave came the second, even more powerful, more than ten meters high. The ships in the roadstead were completely destroyed, with the exception of Kanelos, which ran aground 1.5 kilometers inland.
Then the tsunami began a "journey" across the Pacific Ocean. Nearly fifteen hours after the Valdivia earthquake, a 10-meter tsunami struck Hilo Island in the Hawaiian archipelago, which is located more than 10,000 km from the epicenter, killing 61 people. Tsunamis have been reported in Japan, the Philippines, Easter Island, the western United States, New Zealand, Samoa and the Marquesas Islands. Small waves even reached the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka.
SEISMIC HISTORY
The entire coast of South America from Ecuador to the Taitao Peninsula in Chile's Aisen region is a huge, very active and rapidly developing subduction zone between the Nazca and South American plates. The convergence of plates proceeds at a speed of 70 millimeters per year in southern Chile to 80 millimeters in the northern part of the country and southern Peru. It has been established that earthquakes with a magnitude close to 9.0 and higher occur every 380 years between the Arauco and Taitao peninsulas. If in this zone long time medium-sized earthquakes do not occur, then earth's crust saves energy every year and as a result, a very strong earthquake occurs.
LAKE RINYUE AND THE THREAT OF FLOODING VALDIVIA
It could have been a tragedy, perhaps even greater than the earthquake itself, if measures were not quickly taken to eliminate the consequences of the earthquake in the area of \u200b\u200bthis lake.
As a result of the earthquake, rocks collapsed and the runoff from Lake Rignyue was blocked. Rignyue is the last of a system of seven lakes located on the San Pedro River, which flows through several cities until Valdivia empties into the Pacific Ocean.
The preconditions for the catastrophe were already laid by the earthquake on December 16, 1575, when a powerful landslide blocked the flow from Lake Rignyue and as a result, a large area of \u200b\u200bland downstream was flooded. At that time, the area was very sparsely populated and therefore the flood did not cause large human casualties.
1960 is another matter. Then in the area of \u200b\u200bpossible flooding there were several settlements, including quite big City Valdivia. The water level in the San Pedro River began to rise rapidly and only 24 meters remained for the lake waters to break through to the lower lying areas, in which case all settlements downstream were destroyed within 5 hours.
To avoid the final destruction of the cities of Valdivia and Corral, several battalions of the Chilean army, hundreds of workers and hydrological and hydraulic engineers were sent to the lake area. 27 bulldozers were used to gradually destroy the formed dam and the water level in the lake began to gradually fall. On 23 May, the threat of flooding in the Valdivia area disappears. In general, the area where more than 100 thousand people lived was under the threat of flooding.
LET'S BACK ...
The earthquake was really very strong and was felt throughout Chile.
A few facts:
__If we analyze all the major earthquakes on Earth for the period from 1906 to 2005 (with a magnitude of 5 and higher), it turns out that almost 25% of the seismic energy released by earthquakes falls on the Great Valdiva earthquake.
__When the earthquake happened, it was recorded by all the seismic stations of the Earth, but the seismographs simply went off scale, which indicated a very strong earthquake. Moreover, specialists from Soviet Union initially it was believed that the earthquake occurred either in Japan or in South America, the Japanese - that it was in the United States, the Americans - that in Japan.
Chile is located along an area of \u200b\u200bhigh seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Almost all earthquakes here are the result of the collision of the Nazca oceanic plate and the continental South American plate. The movement of these plates makes Chile one of the most dangerous countries on the planet, along with Japan and Indonesia. In addition to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions often occur in Chile, which often occur during periods of strong earthquakes.
Energy is produced by the tension between the two plates and can build up during quiet periods, leading to violent earthquakes.
The Valdiva earthquake led to dramatic changes in the structure of the Earth - the earth's axis shifted by 3 centimeters, and the Nazca and South American plates approached at once by 40 meters, while in normal years they converge by 8-9 centimeters for the whole year.
EARTHQUAKE INTENSITY
Valdivia - XII points, Puerto Saavedra and Puerto Montt - XI points, Osorno - X points, Pucon and Villarrica - IX points, Angola, Temuco, Lebu and Los Angeles - VIII points, Concepcion and Chillán - VII points, Talca and Chaiten - VI points, Puerto Aisen, Coyayque, Cochrane, Pichilemu and Rancagua - V points, San Antonio and Santiago - IV points, Villa del Mar, Valparaiso and Los Andes - III points, La Serena - II points.
EFFECTS
Much of southern Chile was destroyed by two earthquakes and a tsunami. The newspaper La Cruz del Sur on 28 May 1960 reported 962 dead, 160 missing and 1410 wounded.
Chillan was probably the least affected, 20% of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, besides, the city is located far from the coast and the tsunami did not reach it. Other cities in the earthquake zone were almost completely destroyed. In Talcahuano, 65% of houses have been completely destroyed and another 20% have become uninhabitable. In Concepcion, more than 2,000 houses were destroyed, a bridge over the Bio-Bio river, more than 125 people died in the city. The iron smelter in Huachipato has completely stopped operations due to damage to industrial buildings and the ingress of water into the smelting furnaces. Water flooded underground coal mines on the Arauco Peninsula. In the city of Los Angeles, more than 60% of buildings were destroyed, in Angola - about 82%. A landslide resulted in the deaths of over 300 people from the Mapuche Indian community in Peyueco.
But the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Valdivia suffered the most. Here about 40% of buildings were completely destroyed and more than 20 thousand people were left homeless. The Calle Calle River flooded the entire central part of the city, where almost all the main buildings were destroyed. In the port of Corral, hundreds of people died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami.
On the coast, the tsunami did much more damage than the tremors. In the province of Kautin, the town of Tolten was completely destroyed, which later had to be rebuilt in another place. Puerto Saavedra and Keule were practically wiped out. The inhabitants of Puerto Saavedra escaped in the mountains, but some villages died out completely. The same situation occurred in the villages on the coast near Valdivia (Los Morros, San Carlos, Amargos, Camino Amargos, Corral Bajo, La Aguada, San Juan, Ensenada, Niebla Meuín and Los Molinos) and in the province of Osorno (Baia Mansa , Pucatriue and Choro Traiguen).
In Puerto Monte, 80% of city buildings were destroyed, both as a result of the earthquake and as a result of the tsunami and subsequent fires. On the island of Chiloe, about 800 people died as a result of the tsunami and most of the pile houses were destroyed, small towns on the coast practically ceased to exist.
There were more terrible tragedies associated with earthquakes: the Haitian disaster of 2010, the Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004, the Tanshan earthquake in China in 1976, and others, already described on Geoversum. But never on earth was there more strong earthquakethan the 1960 Valdivia earthquake.
And several circumstances saved from huge casualties among the population:
__ Relatively small population of the disaster area (southern Chile in 1960 was a mostly agricultural area with a small population density)
___ The imposition of a state of emergency the day before the major disaster following a strong earthquake on the morning of May 21, 1960
___ Cancellation of the celebration Navyslated nationwide on May 22nd.
___ In the end, the fact that May 22 was Sunday, and on that day most of the residents were not in their homes, but at the services in churches, which in most of them withstood the strongest shocks.
Earthquakes in 1960 with a magnitude greater than 7.
1. Off the coast of southern Peru, January 16, magnitude 7.12. Off the east coast of Honshu Island, Japan, March 20, magnitude 8.0
3. Off the east coast of Honshu Island, Japan, March 23, magnitude 7.0
4. Bio-Bio, Chile, May 21, magnitude 8.1
5 Bio-Bio, Chile, May 22, magnitude 7.1
6. Araucania, May 22, magnitude 8.6
7. Bio-Bio, Chile, May 22, magnitude 9.6
8. Aysen, Chile, June 6, magnitude 7.8
9. Araucania, Chile, June 29, magnitude 7.0
10. Araucania, Chile, November 1, magnitude 7.4
11. Off the coast of Northern Peru, November 20, magnitude 7.6
12. Fiji Region, November 24, magnitude 7.2
13. Antofagasta, Chile, December 2, magnitude 7.3
Earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960 19:11:14 UTC.
Magnitude 9.5
Earthquake consequences:
About 1,655 dead, 3,000 wounded, 2,000,000 people lost their homes. The damage was estimated at $ 550 million. As a result of the earthquake, a tsunami was formed, from which 61 people died.
The results were worldwide, with $ 75 million in damage to Hawaii, 138 deaths in Japan and $ 50 million in damage. 32 people have died and gone missing in the Philippines. Some destruction was on the west coast of the United States.
Severe damage from the earthquake was in Valdivia, in the Puerto Montt area. Most of the casualties, and most of the damage hit, were caused by the huge tsunami, the tsunami hitting the coast of Chile, in the Lebu region of Puerto Aisen and in many parts of the Pacific Ocean.
Puerto Saavedra was completely destroyed by waves that reached a height of 11.5 m (38 ft), houses were destroyed 3 km (2 miles) offshore. The 8m (26ft) wave caused great damage in Corral.
The tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii, mostly in Hilo, where the tsunami reached 10.6 m (35 ft).
Waves over 5.5 m (18 ft) reached the north of Honshu Island about 1 day after the earthquake, where more than 1,600 homes were destroyed, 185 people were killed or missing.
Another 32 people have died or gone missing in the Philippines after the tsunami.
Tsunami damage also occurred on Easter Island, Samoa and California. One to 1.5 m (3-5 ft) soil subsidence has occurred along the Chilean coast from the southern tip of the Arauco Peninsula.
On May 24, 1960, the Puyehue volcano erupted, a plume of smoke and steam reached 6000 meters. The eruption continued for several weeks.
This earthquake was preceded by 4 7.0 magnitude foreshocks, including 7.9 on the Richter scale on May 21, 1960, which caused severe damage in the Concepción area.
This is the largest earthquake of the 20th century.
It should be noted that the death rate from the tsunami outside Chile, as a result of this earthquake, was 1,655 people. But some estimates put the death toll at 5,700 outside Chile.
The death toll was less than it could have been because it happened in the middle of the day, many buildings were earthquake resistant and a series of strong foreshocks made the population ready for it
The epicenter of the earthquake on the map
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