1960 Valdivia Earthquake

By Vaibhav Pandey
Rahul Anand
Pradyut Anand
Suyash Kothari
Utkarsh Goyal
 Also Known as The Great Chilean earthquake.
It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
Occurred on 22 May afternoon (19:11 GMT, 2:11 PM local time), and lasted
approximately 10 minutes.
The resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines,
eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia and the Aleutian Islands.
Chile has had 13 quakes of 7.0 or higher on the Richter scale since 1973.
What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one
another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane.

The location below the earths surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter.

The location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.

Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks.

Can scientists predict earthquakes?

No, and it is unlikely they will ever be able to predict them. Scientists have tried many
different ways of predicting earthquakes, but none have been successful. On any particular
fault, scientists know there will be another earthquake sometime in the future, but they have
no way of telling when it will happen.
Epicenter

The epicenter of this megathrust earthquake was near Lumaco (see map),
approximately 570 kilometres (350 mi) south of Santiago, with Valdivia being
the most affected city.
The tremor caused localised tsunamis that severely battered the Chilean coast,
with waves up to 25 metres (82 ft). The main tsunami raced across the Pacific
Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawaii.
Waves as high as 10.7 metres (35 ft) were recorded 10,000 kilometres (6,200
mi) from the epicenter, and as far away as Japan and the Philippines.

The death toll ranges between 1000 to 6000 killed .

Estimated the monetary losses ranges between US$400 million to 800 million.
 Ring of fire

Chile sits on the Ring of Fire,

the volatile, 40,000 km-long
(25,000 MILE) zone that
encircles the Pacific Ocean and
includes the most seismically
dangerous ground on the planet.
The unstable plate tectonics
along the Ring produce some
90% of the world's earthquakes
as well as most of its volcanic
eruptions.
Timeline
There was a series of earthquakes.

May 21, 10:02 GMT :

The first earthquake occurred. Its epicenter was near Curanilahue. It lasted for 35
seconds but it devastated one-third of the buildings in Concepcin, reaching a magnitude
of 8.1 This initial earthquake would kill 150 people, and it marked the beginning of ten
days of terror that would ultimately leave 1000 dead and 350,000 homeless (Rudolph,
1960).

May 22, 1960, 10:32 GMT :

The second quake would occur slightly over 24 hours later, in the Nahuelbuta National
Park, just south of Concepcin, reaching 7.1 magnitude

May 22, 1960, 18:55GMT

The third would come just after 6 hours totaling 7.8 Magnitude.
As powerful and destructive that the three Concepcin earthquakes were, they would
come to alert the rest of the population for what would come.

These earthquakes formed a southward migrating foreshock sequence to the main Valdivia
shock, which occurred just 15 minutes after the third event.
 Valdivia earthquake
May 22, 1960, 19:11 GMT
The Valdivia earthquake affected all of Chile between Talca and Chilo Island, more
than 400,000 square kilometres .
Coastal villages, such as Toltn, were struck.
At Corral, the main port of Valdivia, the water level rose 4 m (13 ft) before it began to
recede.
May 22, 1960, 20:20 GMT
A 26-foot wave struck the Chilean coast, taking most structures and buildings with it when
it receded. But the worst was still to come.
May 22, 1960, 20:20 GMT
Minutes later, a slower 35-foot wave rolled in; it is estimated that this wave killed more
than 1,000 people, including those who had thought they had moved safely to high
ground.
Natural disasters triggered
Landslides
The earthquake triggered numerous landslides, mainly in the steep glacial valleys of
the southern Andes. Within the Andes, most landslides occurred on forested mountain
slopes .These landslides did not cause many fatalities nor significant economic losses
because most of the areas were uninhabited, with only minor roads.

Volcano
On May 24, 38 hours after the main shock of
the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, Cordn Volcano
of chile erupted. The eruption ended on 22
July .
The Great Pacific-Wide Tsunami of 22 May 1960
Chile
The tsunami waves begun reaching the immediate coastline areas of Chile within 10
to 15 minutes after the earthquake.
At the coastal area closest to the epicenter, huge tsunami waves measuring as high
as 25 meters (up to 82 feet), arrived within 10 to 15 minutes after the earthquake,
killing at least two hundred people.
After leaving Chile, the tsunami traveled hundreds of miles west toward Hawaii, the
Philippines and Japan, where hundreds also died. In fact, the waves set off by this
earthquake bounced back and forth across the Pacific Ocean for a week.
Hawaii
At about at 12 to 20 minute time intervals, a total of eight tsunami waves struck
Hawaii. The first of the series arrived at Hilo Bay at about 12:15 on May 23, 14.8
hours after the earthquake. The first wave appeared as a sudden rapid tidal
oscillation but did not cause any alarm.
Subsequently, the arrival of the second wave was proceeded by a quick recession of
the water but again there was not much inundation. The third wave was extremely
destructive. It arrived a little after 1 a.m. as a 20 ft. bore and crashed as a massive
wall of water, completely inundating about 550 acres of Hilo's waterfront area and
penetrating inland by as much as 3,600 feet. The destruction this wave caused was
unprecedented.
Previous and later earthquakes

There is evidence that a similar earthquake and landslide occurred in 1575 in

Valdivia. This earthquake was of similar strength and also caused a Riihuazo.
According to the chronicle of Mario de Lobera, corregidor of Valdivia in 1575,
a landslide blocked the outflow of the lagoon of Renigua. Several months
later in April, it caused a flood.He said that the Spanish settlers had
evacuated and waited on high ground until after the dam burst, but many
aboriginals died in the flood waters.

On 27 February 2010 at 03:34 local time, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake

occurred just off the coast of the Maule region of Chile.This quake was
reported to be centered approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) deep and
several miles off shore. This 2010 Chile earthquake may be related or
consequential to the 1960 tremor.[41]