Download Chilean Earthquake

Chile Earthquake
February 27, 2010
Tectonic Setting:
The Nazca Plate subducts under the
South America Plate at a rate of 7080mm per year.
Subduction is responsible for the uplift
of the Andes Mountains. Mountain
building creates shallow earthquakes.
Interface between the Nazca and South
America Plate creates interplate
earthquakes at depths from 10-60 km.
Yellow star: Feb. 27, 2010
Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake
Yellow circles: Aftershocks
associated with Feb. 27, 2010
Earthquake
This map shows the spatial
relationship between the large
earthquakes in this region
spanning back 100 years.
This plot is a cross section of the plate margin and the earthquakes associated with it.
Spatial distribution of earthquakes equal
to or greater than M8 since 1900.
Temporal distribution of earthquakes
equal to or greater than M8 since 1900.
This plot illustrates the cumulative energy
release since 1900. It is interesting to
note that while these large earthquakes
tend to occur close together in time,
there is no appreciable difference in the
energy release between these events.
This shows that there is no statistical
significance in the temporal clustering of
these events.
Tsunami:
A tsunami warning was issued
because geologists didn’t want to
underestimate the destructive
power of the wave.
Drawback to this theory: boy who
cried wolf effect.
Although the tsunami (up to 2.5
meters) did not generate large or
deadly waves, it did drastically
affect the ocean currents for a
short period of time.
This created large hazards for
boat users throughout the Pacific
Ocean.