1960 Valdivia Earthquake

An earthquake is the phenomenon that a huge energy suddenly released and appeared in the Earth’s crust when two moved plates slip past one another. The earthquakes usually happen in the convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries and transform boundaries. In the three kinds of boundaries, the convergent boundary often produces the largest magnitude earthquakes. Because when the two plates collide strongly in the convergent boundary, the extreme pressure and the great friction will appear. So the convergent boundary is more likely to have a large magnitude earthquake. For example, 1960 Valdivia earthquake is one of the largest earthquake events of the last century. This earthquake happened in Chile and the magnitude of the earthquake was 9.5. The Valdivia earthquake happened in the American plate and the Antarctica plate. The huge earthquake caused lots of people died and most of the buildings were destroyed by the earthquake. In addition, the national economy suffered heavy losses. …show more content…
This earthquake makes me think that the next large earthquake may happen in the California. Because the California is located in the American plate and Pacific plate. It is a convergent boundary and this area belong to the Circum-Pacific seismic belt area. What’s more, the San Andrea fault is located in the western of America. It would be a high intensity earthquake if California had the earthquake. Because California is the crowded city which has a large population and lots of building. When earthquake happened, it will affect people’s life and the development of economy. For Tucson, this place will not have a large earthquake. Because this place is far away from the seismic belt and Tucson isn’t located in the edge of the continent. So Tucson is likely to be affected by other areas’