1985 Santiago earthquake

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Map showing location of the epicenter

The 1985 Santiago earthquake was a seismic movement registered on 3 March 1985 at 22:47 UTC (19:47 local time). Its epicenter was located on the south coasts of Valparaíso Region, Chile, close to the beaches of Algarrobo. It had a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter magnitude scale^[1].

The earthquake was felt between Antofagasta Region in the north, and Araucanía Region in the south, being felt with more power in Central Chile. It reached a maximum intensity of XI in the Mercalli intensity scale. The most affected zone was the port of San Antonio, in Valparaíso Region, together with Alhué and Melipilla in Santiago Metropolitan Region and Rengo in O'Higgins Region. The earthquake affected with great intensity too the country's capital, Santiago, where about 40% of the population lived.^{[citation needed]}

The final victims count threw 177 dead, 2,575 hurt, 142,489 destroyed houses and about a million people houseless. Many landslides were registered too, pavement breaks with the destruction of Pan-American highway in several points, broken-down bridges and considerable damage in affected town's infrastructure, with a long interruption on basic services. The damage was valued in more than 1,046 million US dollars^[2].