Chile is on the western coast of the continent of South America, this is the boundary between two tectonic plates, the Nazca plate (which is an oceanic plate) and the South American plate (a continental crustal plate).
In this region the Nazca plate is moving eastwards towards the South American plate. The dense oceanic crust of the Nazca plate is being forced under or subducted beneath the less dense continental crust of the South American Plate.
The Nazca and South American plates are converging at a rate of approximately 80mm / year. This causes stress to accumulate resulting in elastic strain which stores elastic potential energy. Once the stress exceeds the strength of the rocks in the crust a brittle failure occurs, causing in this case thrust faulting to occur. The stored elastic strain energy is released in the form of seismic waves.
This form of thrust faulting usually results in the most powerful earthquakes and in the past Chile has experienced a magnitude 9.5 earthquake caused by the same tectonic plate motions - the most powerful ever recorded.
Please see the related question for further information.
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 8.8 (on the Moment Magnitude Scale) and an intensity of severe (VIII) on the Modified Mercalli (MM) scale.
Please see the related question for more information.
The earthquake's epicentre (the point on the surface directly above the earthquake) was 100 km NNW of the nearest city, Chillan, which has a population of 170,000 people and around 115 km NNE of Concepcion (population 292,589, metropolitan area population of 1,322,581).
According to the USGS the exact co-ordinates were 35.846°S, 72.719°W.
Please see the related question for more information.
There were 523 people killed, 24 missing, and about 12,000 reported injured.
Five hundred twenty five people died and another 25 are missing.
6.3km
The date of the Chile Earthquake was on the 27th February 2010
The 2010 Chilean earthquake lasted 90 seconds.
I believe the January 10th 2010 Haiti earthquake was the 18th largest in the records.It was magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter Scale. It had the energy of a 32 million tons of TNT.To put that into perspective. It was 500 times less than the mag 8.8 earthquake to hit Chile on Feb, 27 2010 (15.8 billion tons of TNT) and 2,000 times less than the mag 9.1 Indian Ocean earthquake of December 26, 2004 (90.7 billion tons of TNT).One aftershock of the February 27th 2010 Chile earthquake at 08:01 GMT was almost as big as Haiti at mag 6.9.The largest earthquake on record was also just off the coast of Chile about 100 miles south of the 2010 one on May 22nd 1960. It was mag 9.5 earthquake and was 5,500 times bigger at 178 billion tons of TNT.
2.5 sec
It was on february 10, 2010, before 4 am.
The date of the Chile Earthquake was on the 27th February 2010
The Chile Earthquake in February was the biggest earthquake reported in 2010.
Saturday February 27, 2010
The epicenter for the 1960 Great Chilean Earthquake or Valdivia Earthquake happened near the city of Cantete about 100 miles south of the 2010 Chile earthquake.
The biggest earthquake reported in 2010 was the Chile Earthquake on February 27 with a magnitude of 8.8.
The epicenter of the earthquake in Chile on February 27 2010 was 100 km NNW of the nearest city, Chillan, which has a population of 170,000 people and around 115 km NNE of Concepcion (population 292,589, metropolitan area population of 1,322,581). According to the USGS the exact co-ordinates were 35.846°S, 72.719°W.
It lasted about 3 minutes.
The 2010 earthquake that hit Chile was a magnitude 8.8.
The Ryukyu Islands earthquake of February 26, 2010, occurred near the boundary that accommodates most of the relative motion between the Philippine Sea and Eurasia tectonic plates. The coordinates of its epicenter are: 25.902°N, 128.417°E
UNICEF
Chilean, Chile.
There were a number of natural disasters in 2010, including the Haiti earthquake on January 12, the Chile Earthquake on February 27, and Hurricane Tomas in November .