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The Great Chilean Earthquakes Origin

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An earthquake is the shaking of the earth by seismic waves radiating away from the disturbance, most commonly fault movement. The great Chilean earthquakes origin was of the coast of Chile at a subduction zone, referred to as a hot spot for seismic activity.
A subduction zone is a region on the crust of the earth where two tectonics plate meet one another. The area where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary. When two plates meet at a subduction zone, they converge towards each other, and one these tectonic plates come into contact with each other, one bends and slides underneath another, resulting in one curving down to the mantle. In this circumstance when subduction is taking place the denser plate is the one that sinks beneath …show more content…

In the 1960s when the Chilean tragedy struck scientist for the first time identified a subduction zone, by locating descending crust (oceanic), and locating descending crust seems quite simplistic in comparison to older methods for today we consistently are utilizing technology such as GPS. Subduction zones occur around a particular area known as “the ring of fire”, these countries that are dramatically affected by this ring include: Washington, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Japan and Indonesia. These continents are surrounded by the biggest subduction zones responsible for some of the biggest global earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

On the 22nd of May, 1960, the life of so many Europeans had changed and they could never go back for this natural disaster that struck in the South of Chile, caused effects that where not only As a result of the large shocks from the earthquake, a tsunami was produced that was damaging to surrounding continents and islands, this tsunami was abnormal for it wasn’t discreet, inhabitants of continents and islands such as Hawaii could see the tsunami from the coastline. The surface wave magnitude of the tsunami was an 8.6 with a focal depth of 33km, and an epicentre of 39.5° S, 74.5° W. The inhabitants of Chile attempted to seek refuge on sea, however they were ignorant of the tsunami that came around 10 to 15 minutes after the earthquake, the only structures that survived the

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