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2007 Antofagasta earthquake
The 2007 Antofagasta earthquake was an earthquake registered on November 14, 2007 at 15:40:53 UTC . Its epicenter was located between the localities of Quillagua and Tocopilla, affecting the Tarapaca and the Antofagasta regions in northern Chile. The earthquake had a Richter magnitude of 7.7 and lasted about 50 seconds.Terra.cl, 14/11/07, Fuerte sismo sacudio esta tarde al Norte del Pais Seventeen aftershocks of magnitude greater than 5.0, including one of magnitude 6.8 and two others of magnitude 6 or higher, have been recorded. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning, stating a tsunami had been generated; after one hour, this warning was cancelled.
The earthquake was felt from Santiago, 1,245 km south from the epicenter, to La Paz, about 700 km north-northeast.
Tectonic summary
The USGS reported that the earthquake resulted from the release of stresses generated by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca plate beneath the South American Plate. In this region, known as the Peru-Chile subduction zone, the Nazca Plate thrusts beneath South America at a rate of approximately 79 mm/year in an east-north-east direction. This earthquake indicates subduction-related thrusting, likely on the interface between these two plates.
This earthquake occurred near (and within) the southern end of the rupture area of the great magnitude 8.8 earthquake of 1877, which produced a destructive tsunami and whose source region has since the late 1970s been recognized as a potentially dangerous seismic gap. In 1995, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurred in the same subduction zone approximately 200km further south of the November 14th event.
Damage and casualties
At least two deaths have been attributed to this earthquake, one being an 88-year old woman crushed under a collapsing wall at Tocopilla, the other being a 54-year old woman, whose exact cause of death remains unknown. At least 150 were injured. There also have been reports of widespread power outages in the region, including the cities of Antofagasta, Calama and Arica. The earthquake has disrupted copper mining in the region; because Chile is the world's top supplier of copper, the earthquake has caused prices of the metal to jump by more than 6%. Tin prices have also risen 4% to reach a record high. There are reports of several dozens of road workers trapped inside a collapsed highway tunnel.
4,000 homes have been destroyed by the shaking and up to 15,000 people have been displaced. In Tocopilla alone, 1,200 homes have been demolished, representing 30% of all standing structures.
See also
2007 Peru earthquake
2007 Aysen Fjord earthquake
Earthquakes in Peru
Great Chilean Earthquake
List of earthquakes in Chile
Plate tectonics
External links
Oficina Nacional de Emergencia
Report from the seismology service, University of Chile (in Spanish)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article 2007 Antofagasta earthquake
