Great Chilean Earthquake
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Chilean Earthquake or Valdivian Earthquake is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. It happened in the early afternoon (19:11 UTC) of May 22, 1960. It had a 9.5 rating [1] on the Moment magnitude scale. The earthquake affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
Its epicenter was Valdivia. Valdivia is about 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Santiago. The earthquake caused tsunamis that damaged the coast of Chili very badly. There were waves up to 25 meters. The main tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean and caused great damage to Hilo, Hawaii. Waves as high as 10.7 meters (about 35 feet) were recorded 10,000 kilometers from where the earthquake started. These waves traveled as far away as Japan and the Philippines.
The total number of deaths from the earthquake and tsunami was believed to be 6,000.[2] The damage was estimated at over half a billion dollars.[2]
[edit] References
- ↑ USGS Earthquake Hazard program, Historic earthquakes.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Emergency & Disasters Data Base". CRED. Retrieved on May 30 2006.
