Essay On Chilean Earthquake

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1. Introduction
Earthquakes are indeed a devastating type of goehazard. By definition geohazards are natural hazards which have the potential to be harmful to humans. The 2010 earthquake event was one of the strongest to ever be recorded in the country if Chile. The Chilean city of Santiago is ranked as one of the world’s top cities. This city along with many other of the world’s top cities experienced a sharp population growth during the late 19th century and the early 20th century, rural populations migrated to urban areas in seek of opportunity. The Chilean city of Santiago is however an earthquake prone region, the increase in civilisation in the region has amplified the hazard and risk associated with earthquakes and seismic activity. This report will hone in on the effects of the 2010 Chilean Earthquake. …show more content…

The main quake is proved to have initiated in the boundary between the South American Plate and the sub-ducting Nazca plate (Verdugo, et. al 2015). The USGS have also added that these plates are ‘converging at 7m per century’ (USGS 2010), which is quite a significant rate of movement. The epicentre of this quake originated at approximately ‘73.24°W and 36.29°S’(Vargas, et. al.2010), just off the central Chilean coast. The rupture zone covered an overall area of 550km by 170km and started deep beneath the Chilean coast and spread further west, north and south. Ground Vibrations initiated as a result of the spread of this rupture zone generated fault slip. The strongest and most extensive ground shaking was felt at the Chilean city of Concepción, showing a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. The total duration of the earthquake was reported to have lasted for over 2.5 minutes (Saragoni, et. al 2010). This earthquake indeed caused devastation and damage to the Chilean

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