Estimates were the rupture zone stretched anywhere from 500 kilometers (311 miles) to almost 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) along the countrys coast. Several coastal towns were inundated by a 25-metre (80-foot) tsunami. Witnesses reported underground water flowing up through the soil. Telephones were also off. After fleeing to high ground near Queule, more than 100 miles north of Maulln0), Filberto Henrquez saw houses floating away from the town. Richard Pallardy received a B.A. Things were pretty chaotic when we arrived as lots of people who work in the city have homes inland where the epicentre of the quake was and were leaving the city to check on their houses and families. The 1960 Valdivia earthquake sequence ruptured about 1000 km of the southernmost section of the South American Subduction Zone. He thought he'd retrieve a few things from the family house. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Some areas around the margin of the Pacific Ocean are located near subduction zones similar to the one that produced the 1960 Chile earthquake and its tsunami. Nabih Soza, at his store in 1989, remembers Ramn Atala, a fellow merchant in Maulln, Chile. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Hundreds of people were already reported dead by the time the tsunami struck. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. [37], The levels of material damage were relatively low given the high magnitude of the earthquake. [40][41], The hospital of Valdivia, built in 1939, suffered major damages and patients had to be evacuated. Riihue Lake is the lowest of the Seven Lakes chain and receives a constant inflow from the Enco River. Ramirez, C., E. Carrasco, S. Mariani & N. Palacios. It is subducting under (that is, being forced under) the South American plate. The South-Central Chilean subduction zone is known for having produced some of the largest observed earthquakes - among them, the greatest instrumentally recorded earthquake, the 1960 Mw 9.5 Valdivia event [Barrientos and Ward, 1990; Cifuentes . Other volcanoes may also have erupted, but none were recorded because of the lack of communication in Chile at the time. On May 22, 1960, the most powerfulearthquake in recorded historymagnitude 9.5struck southern Chile. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Outside of town, he owned a barn and a plantation of Monterey pine. 1994; Somoza 1998). It had a magnitude of 8.1, lasted for 35 seconds and destroyed a third of the buildings in the city of Concepcin in Chile. Some residents of the town say that Mr. Atala was briefly restrained outside the warehouse by his wife, who grabbed his hair before he finally broke away. [44][45], Land subsidence in Corral Bay improved navigability as shoal banks, produced earlier by sediments from Madre de Dios and other nearby gold mines, sank and were compacted. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. El caso de Lota, Chile", "El domingo en que Valdivia sufri el terremoto ms violento del mundo", "Chile | Terremoto de Valdivia: cmo fue el poderoso sismo de 1960, el mayor registrado de la historia Vivienda al Da", "A 60 aos del terremoto de 1960 | Deutsche Wochenzeitung Cndor in Chile", "Further observations of geologic and geomorphic changes resulting from the catastrophic earthquake of May 1960, in Chile", "An Mw =7.7 slow earthquake in 1960 near the Aysn Fjord region, Chile", Revista de la Asociacin Geolgica Argentina, "El "Riihuazo" y su lucha contra la naturaleza", "Investigacin aplicada sobre Geografa Urbana: Un caso prctico en la ciudad de Valdivia", "Genesis y manifestacin de las inundaciones en el sur de Chile", "The Ecological Approach to the Conservation of Plants in Botanic Gardens - The Experience of the Botanic Garden in Valdivia, Chile", "National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation for a Chile Resilient to Disasters of Natural Origin", "CONSULTATION REPORT ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING", "Ancient Chilean tsunami scared local people away for 1000 years", "Predecessors of the giant 1960 Chile earthquake", "Tsunami After Deadly Earthquake Hits Chile", "Chile Earthquake Altered Earth Axis, Shortened Day", "El terremoto chileno del 27 de febrero de 2010: Anlisis preliminar de las consecuencias en la ciudad de Valdivia", 22 May 1960 South Central Chile Tsunami Amplitudes, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1960_Valdivia_earthquake&oldid=1152212584, This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 21:41. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. As many as 6,000 people were killed. The earthquake struck while she was digging for clams on the shore more than 4 miles west of Maulln, Chile. Not all people in the area fleeing the earthquake and the tsunami were as lucky as Mr. Maldonado. Not far from Queule, Vitalia Llanquimn lived outside the village of Mehun. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. [5] Many Chilean cities sustained significant damage, including Puerto Montt, where noticeable subsidence occurred, and Valdivia, where nearly half of the buildings were rendered uninhabitable. The eruption ended on 22 July 59 days later. [73] This quake was reported to be centered approximately 35 kilometres (22mi) deep and several miles off shore. Turning around, they watched the 20-foot-high, nearly vertical front of the wave hit the bridge, and water splashed high into the air. There they hoped to measure the 1960 Chilean tsunami, which was expected to arrive at about midnight. Shaking from the 1960 earthquake not only damaged roads but also caused landslides.