Chilean Earthquake By: Chaiti

About the earthquakeThe world famous Chilean Earthquake happens to be the largest ever recorded, at a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. This natural disaster occurred on 22nd May, 1960 in the South American Country of Chile, close to the south pacific ocean, while in the middle of the longest mountain range in the world, The Andes. This Earthquake was so big, it sent very strong tremors as well as tsunami waves as far as Malaysia and The Sumatra.

This is how powerful the earthquake was, red, orange and yellow is where the tremors was the most powerful. Also where the numbers are small. And If you can see there is a small white star where it happened. In the City of Valdivia. As the colours get cooler and the numbers advance, is where the earthquake gets less destructive and more mild.

WHY THIS HAPPENED? This may have happened due to the fact that Chile as I said previously is near the pacific ocean, which means it may be closer to “The ring of fire” than other countries. The ring of fire is a natural disaster zone that surrounds the pacific and it’s close countries, that’s why Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea are the two countries which have the most earthquakes.

Did you know?• Approximately 1,655 people got killed, 3,000 injured, and

2,000,000 homeless, those are a lot of numbers! The tsunami caused 61 deaths, further off the coast and 32 dead and missing in The Philippines

• There were four after shocks at the magnitude of around 7.0, then they were 5 more after shocks more than 7.0. (the longest was 10 hours, 2 minutes and 50 seconds)

• An epicenter 60 km deep in the ocean. (A point of the earth surface vertically right above the focus of an earthquake) There were many volcanoes erupting, and in California, USA, the tsunami waves were so strong, they washed several fishing boats of the coast.

• There were several landslides that affected a lot of people living near the mountains. This formed new lakes on the side of The Andes.

• Older and more previous rivers were dammed due to the the landslide.

Photo’s Here are two of the photos, to show you how intense it was:

Volcanic Eruptions near The Andes

The Californian wave wash. (here is one)

Thank you for watching!!