On May 22, 1960, Chile was hit by the strongest earthquake ever recorded: magnitude 9.5, tsunami, volcanic eruption and thousands of victims.
On May 22, 1960 the Chile was the scene of the most violent earthquake ever recorded by seismic tools. With a magnitude of 9.5according to other sources, however, between 9.2 and 9.6the earthquake – known as Valdivia or Bío Bío earthquake -He hit the central-southern coast of the country. The epicenter was located near the city of Valdiviabut the event affected about 900 km along the Subduction area where the Nazca plate slips under the South American one.
The earthquake was caused by the sudden slip between the two busty plaqueswith a average movement of about 15 meters and peaks up to 40 meters. This gigantic release of energy generated not only one prolonged and destructive shaking – lasted over 10 minutes – but also a imposing tsunami. The waves, over 20 meters high along the Chilean coasts, subsequently reached almost all the shores of the Pacific Ocean: Hawaii, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand And many others.
A tsunami followed many hours after the earthquake
THE damage were devastating. Beyond dEU millions of people they remained homeless only in Chile. The direct victims of the earthquake were about 3,000, but the budget worsened with beyond 50 deaths in Hawaii and more than 100 in Japan due to the tsunami. The waves reached the foreign coasts many hours later, in once theoretically sufficient to launch effective alerts. However, at the time an international alarm system for tsunami was still missing.
The 1960 Chile earthquake inspired the first Pacific Tsunami alert system
Precisely in response to this tragedy, in 1965 the First Pacific alert system, based in Honolulu. This event represents a milestone in the history of seismology and the mitigation of natural risk. He taught how essential a global monitoring is and has provided crucial data on the dynamics of subduction earthquakes.
The earthquake of Valdiviatogether with those of Sumatra in 2004 and of Japan In 2011, he profoundly changed our understanding of great seismic events and showed that, despite scientific progress
