February 27, 2010 Maule, Chile 8.8, Best Syndication News Options

[PattyBrooks]

(Best Syndication News) President Barack Obama said Saturday that the United States is ready help after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck the South American country of Chile (see list of the largest recorded earthquakes below). The initial quake was so large that Argentina felt some of the smaller aftershocks.

Last week the US Geological Survey (USGS) was warning of more earthquakes in the Caribbean Sea. “The threat of additional damaging earthquakes in Haiti will remain for the next year,” their report stated on Tuesday. A powerful earthquake rocked Japan on Saturday (Friday in the US) and an even larger quake hit southern Chile the next day sending Tsunami warnings across the Pacific from Australia to Russia. The warnings in Hawaii and Australia have now been canceled.

The earthquake in Chili struck at 3:34 AM local time (10:34 PM Friday PST) and was felt 200 miles away in Santiago. Some say it lasted about 45 seconds while the official report stated it lasted about 3 minutes.

The epicenter was on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” which stretches in an upside-down U from the Samoan Islands to Japan over to Alaska and back down to Chili (see map below). Over 80 percent of the largest and nearly 90 percent of all the world’s earthquakes strike this region.

The death toll has already exceeded 200, but it could have been much higher if not for the stringent building codes. Since a 9.5 quake struck Valdivia Chili in 1960, the country has made an effort to bring codes up to new earthquake standards. That quake was the largest earthquake since 1900.

By: Dan Wilson

Here is a list of the largest earthquakes by magnitude:





Rank Date Location Magnitude
1 May 22, 1960 Valdivia, Chile 9.5
2 December 26, 2004 Off west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia 9.3
3 March 27, 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA 9.2
4 November 4, 1952 Kamchatka, USSR 9.0
5 January 26, 1700 Cascadia subduction zone, Canada and USA 9.0 *
6 November 25, 1833 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.8–9.2
7 February 27, 2010 Maule, Chile 8.8
8 January 31, 1906 Ecuador–Colombia 8.8
9 February 4, 1965 Rat Islands, Alaska, USA 8.7
10 November 1, 1755 Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal 8.7 *
11 March 28, 2005 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.6–8.7 1
12 March 9, 1957 Andreanof Islands, Alaska, USA 8.6
13 December 16, 1920 Ningxia–Gansu, China 8.6
14 August 15, 1950 Assam, India – Tibet, China 8.6
15 October 27, 1969 Bosnia and Hercegovina – Banja luka 8.5
16 December 16, 1575 Valdivia, Kingdom of Chile 8.5
17 September 12, 2007 Sumatra, Indonesia 8.5
18 October 16, 1737 Kamchatka, Russian Empire 8.3


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