Seismicity of the Chilean coast identifies and describes the seismic activity of an area of Chile. Seismicity refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time. The Chilean coast is on the southern part of South America, which is near a Pacific Ocean subduction zone.
Major earthquakes in Chile occur in a small number of source areas. Those that affect coastal regions are aligned offshore from Concepción to the south. The major epicenters produce a predictable pattern of seismic and tsunami effects.[1]
The first systematic seismology of Chile began after an earthquake and fire devastated Valparaiso in 1906.[2]
Significant events that devastated coastal communities in the 20th and 21st centuries include:
The seismicity of the Chilean coast and the top six quakes ever recorded appear to be clustered in two time periods: a 12-year span between 1952 and 1964 and a 7-year span between the 2004 and 2011; however, this is understood as a statistical anomaly[5]
The phenonmenon comparably large quakes that happen on the same or neighbouring faults within months of each other can be explained by a sound geological mechanism; but this does not fully demonstrate a relationship between events separated by longer periods and greater distances[6]