Abstract

BARRIENTOS, Sergio E.. The earthquake (M=8.8) of september 27th 2010 in Chile. Rev. Asoc. Geol. Argent. [online]. 2010, vol.67, n.3, pp.412-420. ISSN 0004-4822.

A nearly 450-km-long rupture along the Nazca - South America plate interface, between northern Pichilemu (33.8°S) and the Arauco Peninsula (37.8°S) was responsible for the large earthquake that took place in south-central Chile on 27 February 2010 at 03:34 (local time). The Harvard seismic moment reached 1.86 x 1029 dyne-cm (M=8.8). Because of the location of the activated fault, a significant tsunami was generated which caused 124 deaths making the total toll 521. One of the major tectonic consequences of this earthquake was the activation of a blind intraplate normal fault which produced one of the largest aftershocks of the sequence, a M=6.9 on March 11, 2010. This activation is explained by the associated stress of the upper plate produced by the large slip on the coupled region.

Keywords : Seismicity; South/central Chile; Aftershocks; Fault activation; Nazca-South America convergence; Tsunami.

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