Why does Chile have earthquakes?

Answer 1

Chile is on the western coast of the continent of South America, this is very close to 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 thrust faulting to occur. The stored elastic strain energy is released on 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 and known as a megathrust earthquake which occur specifically at convergent plate boundaries.

Please see the related links for more information.

Answer 2

Peru is located at a convergent tectonic plate boundary and so experiences a large number of earthquakes. For more information read on!

Peru is located on the western edge of the continent of South America. This also marks a tectonic plate boundary between the South American plate and the Nazca plate. In this region, the dense oceanic Nazca plate is moving towards the more buoyant continental South American plate. As it is more dense than the South American plate, the Nazca plate is forced down into the mantle in a process known as subduction. However this is not a smooth process and large stresses can build up at the boundary where the two plates can become partially locked together. When this stress becomes to large the two plates near the fault in question suddenly jolt and release all the stored energy in the form of seismic waves causing earthquakes.

These types of earthquakes, termed megathrust earthquakes cause very powerful earthquakes known as megathrust earthquakes. Infact the largest earthquake recorded by man occurred on the plate boundary described above with a magnitude of 9.5 affecting Chile in May 1960, known as the Valdivia Earthquake.

Answer 3

Because they are on top of plate tectonics

Answer 4

because the techtonic plates move a lot over there its kinda wierd

Answer 5

Because it lies along the San Andreas fault.