MundoAndino Home : Chile Guide at Mundo Andino
Peru-Chile Trench
The Peru-Chile Trench, also known as the Atacama Trench, is an oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 160 kilometers (100 mi) off the coast of Peru and Chile. It reaches a maximum depth of 8,065 meters below sea level in Richards Deep and is approximately 5,900 kilometers long; its mean width is 64 kilometers (40 mi) and it covers an expanse of some 590,000 square kilometers .
The trench is a result of the eastern edge of the Nazca Plate being subducted under the South American Plate. The trench subducts two seamount ridges; the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernandez Ridge.
The Peru-Chile Trench, the forearc and the western edge of the central Andean plateau (Altiplano), delineate the dramatic "Bolivian Orocline" that defines the Andean slope of southern Peru, northern Chile, and Bolivia.
From the Chile Triple Junction to Juan Fernandez Ridge the trench is filled with 2.0 to 2.5 km of mainly turbidite sediments, creating thus a flat bottom topography.
See also
Oceanic trench
Pacific Ring of Fire
;Earthquakes
2010 Chile Earthquake
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Geology of Chile or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Peru-Chile Trench
