The largest earthquake of the 20th century, occurred on May 22 1960 off the coast of South Central Chile. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 60 meters down below the ocean floor, which is about 100 miles off the coast of Chile out in the Pacific. The nearby towns of Valdivia and Puerto Montt suffered ironic damage because of their closeness to the center of such a massive quake. Fortunately, the large foreshocks served as a warning and some lives were saved as many people had evacuated buildings and had taken to the safety of open space.
Possibly 30 minutes or so after the foreshocks when the main jolt came, many people were trying to calm down from the first shock. Near the city of Valdivia, the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks generated landslides which killed 18 people. At the port city of Valparaiso, a city of 200,000, numerous buildings collapsed. A total of 130,000 houses were destroyed - one in every three in the earthquake zone and approximately 2,000,000 people were left homeless. Because of the damages from the buildings and homes, the total cost was probably about over half a billion dollars. Not only was there damage to man-made structures during the quake, but the earth itself was forever changed by the enormous amount of energy released, and huge landslides and such were sent tumbling down mountain slopes.
What Caused The Earthquake?
Faults are cracks in the earth caused by buckling and stress from the movement of the tectonic plates. Movement along faultlines tends to happen along plate boundaries - where the edges of the tectonic plates meet.
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