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1960 Valdivia Earthquake | Biggest Earthquake in the world

It’s the 1960 Valdivia Earthquake - Biggest Earthquake in the world

The earthquake was a megathrust earthquake resulting from the release of mechanical stress between the subducting Nazca Plate and the South American Plate, on the Peru–Chile Trench. Subduction zones are known to produce the strongest earthquakes on earth, as their particular structure allows more stress to build up before energy is released.

However, On May 22, 1960, the stress built up by years of increasing compressional force between the two plates. The force of the sudden movement along a roughly 560–620-mile (900–1,000-km) stretch of the Nazca plate pushed part of the leading edge of the South American plate upward. Thus, it created one of the worst biggest earthquakes in the world.

Moreover, this sudden increase of the plate/rock created huge dangerous weaves towards the Pacific Ocean and this is called “Tsunami“.

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How the 1960 Valdivia Earthquake happened: Timeline

Timeline: The 21st of May 1960 was a Saturday and in Chile, most people were preparing for the traditional commemoration of the Battle of Iquique happens every year, a naval battle that Chile lost against Peru during the War of the Pacific at the end of the 19th century.

At 6:02 am local time, the Earth under the coastal town of Concepcion began to shake violently. A few minutes later, after this 8.3 magnitude earthquake was over, 125 people were dead and a third of the buildings in town lay in wrecks.

Chile’s President Jorge Alessandri postponed the festivities and started to organize the emergency response to this very severe earthquake. However, In this time, the responders were disrupted by dozens of small earthquakes, whose epicenters slowly migrated south from Concepcion. Then, The strongest earthquake at 2:55 pm on Sunday reached a magnitude of 7.9.

But nobody knew that the worst was not yet started. Exactly 16 Minutes after the severe 7.9 magnitude Earthquake, the Earth literally opened up. Within the next ten minutes, two separate quakes happened among them one was 8.5 magnitude another was 9.5 Magnitude.

At 3:11 pm, The earthquake hit approximately 100 miles (160 km) off the coast of Chile, parallel to the city of Valdivia. It was the largest earthquake in the world had ever seen.

When it was over, the busy harbor town of Valdivia was crushed and entire coastal villages had disappeared. But No! No! This was also not the end. Then the monster Tsunami started caused by this 1960 Valdivia Earthquake – the biggest earthquake in the world. The wave of this Tsunami reached up to 25 meters in height. This monster weave crushed and havoc all across the Pacific Ocean coast including southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia, and the Aleutian Islands.

It was such a monster type that it caused a slight hiccup to the unstoppable rotation of our planet, making the days a few milliseconds shorter [Source: Wiki]. Nonetheless, according to modern calculations, this 1960 Valdivia Earthquake also known as the Great Chile Earthquake magnitude of 9.5, which makes it the biggest earthquake in the world ever recorded.

Impact of this Earthquake

1960 Valdivia Earthquake was named after the most affected city quake, Valdivia. The effects of this earthquake were observed up to 1000 km away from the coast of the chile country.

The 1960 Valdivia Earthquake –

  • Left 2 Million People Homeless
  • Approx. 3,000 People injured
  • Approx. 1,6599 People killed
  • Approx. $550 Million Dollar Economic damage (Which today’s value is >$4.8 Billion Dollar)

Want to read more facts about the 1960 Valdivia Earthquake?

Read Here: 1960 Valdivia Earthquake | Biggest Earthquake in the world - Gban'S & You

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