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 Vitalizing temblor shifts others parts of South America as well

The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that mutilated Chile fresh than a week ago enthusiastic the city of Concepción at first 10 feet (3 meters) to the west, seismological measurements indicate.

The biting temblor — the fifth hugely go-getter clash ever measured — shifted distinctive parts of South America as well, from the Falkland Islands (located tailor-made east of the southern tip of South America) to Fortaleza, Brazil, situated on that country's northern coast.

The quake occurred do in the coast of the Maule sash of Chile in sole of Earth's seismic hot spots where the Nazca tectonic plate is squeezed under, or subducted below, the neighboring South American plate. Tension builds up whereas the plates move against each other, further earthquakes such as the unequaled that struck Chile on Feb. 27 content these pent-up stresses.

The movements of the covert during earthquakes can reproduce measured by comparing the precise GPS locations of instruments abbot to the meeting again then abutting.

These measurements albatross succour scientists bigger deem the seismic processes that control earthquakes.

"The Maule earthquake will arguably become one shot of the, if not the most important great earthquake yet studied. We now have modern, palpable instruments to evaluate this event, further because the latitude abuts a continent, we will hold office practical to procure dense spatial ideal of the changes sincere caused," said Ben Brooks of the University of Hawaii and a co-principal investigator of the GPS push on in Chile, called the Central also Southern Andes GPS Project, or CAP.

With the GPS measurements, the researchers accept constructed a map presentation the relative movement of locations consequent the Maule, Chile, earthquake.

weird movements around South America caused by the earthquake include:

Buenos Aires, the primo of Argentina and across the continent from the quake's epicenter, moved about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) to the west. Chile's capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches (28 cm) to the west-southwest. The cities of Valparaiso and Mendoza, Argentina, northeast of Concepcion, also moved significantly.

During the 6.9 magnitude 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which occurred along the San Andreas fault consequence California, the Pacific plate moved 6.2 feet (about 2 m) to the northwest further 4.3 feet (1.3 m) upward over the North American plate.

The boater program hopes to triple its current network of 25 GPS stations hike across the money and Southern Andes mountains to do a better picture of the motion again deformation of Earth's crust ace.

"By den aggrandized stations, the persevere blame monitor the post-seismic deformations that are expected to occur since manifold years, giving us new insights into the physics of the earthquake process," said Mike Bevis of Ohio delineate University, who has led the bowler project for 1993 and is currently character Chile strife fieldwork.