1. Chile Earthquake February 27, 2010

2. Tectonic Setting:
The Nazca Plate subducts under the South America Plate at a rate of 70-80mm per year.
Subduction is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains. Mountain building creates shallow earthquakes.
Interface between the Nazca and South America Plate creates interplate earthquakes at depths from km.

3. Yellow star: Feb. 27, 2010 Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake
Yellow circles: Aftershocks associated with Feb. 27, 2010 Earthquake
This map shows the spatial relationship between the large earthquakes in this region spanning back 100 years.

4. This plot is a cross section of the plate margin and the earthquakes associated with it.

5. Spatial distribution of earthquakes equal to or greater than M8 since 1900.
Temporal distribution of earthquakes equal to or greater than M8 since 1900.
This plot illustrates the cumulative energy release since It is interesting to note that while these large earthquakes tend to occur close together in time, there is no appreciable difference in the energy release between these events. This shows that there is no statistical significance in the temporal clustering of these events.

6. Tsunami:
A tsunami warning was issued because geologists didn’t want to underestimate the destructive power of the wave.
Drawback to this theory: boy who cried wolf effect.
Although the tsunami (up to 2.5 meters) did not generate large or deadly waves, it did drastically affect the ocean currents for a short period of time.
This created large hazards for boat users throughout the Pacific Ocean.