1939 Chillán earthquake
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The 1939 Chillán earthquake occurred in south-central
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
on 24 January with a
surface wave magnitude The surface wave magnitude (M_s) scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements of Rayleigh surface waves that travel along the uppermost layers of the Earth. This ma ...
of 8.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). With a death toll of around 28,000, compared to the 2,231–6,000 (official estimates vary greatly) (Exact data location missing from URL) of the
Great Chilean earthquake The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami ( es, link=no, Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (''Gran terremoto de Chile'') on 22 May 1960 was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4– ...
of 1960, it is the single deadliest
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
in Chile.


Earthquake

At 23:32, the earth began to shake strongly underneath
Chillán Chillán () is the capital city of the Ñuble Region in the Diguillín Province of Chile located about south of the country's capital, Santiago, near the geographical center of the country. It is the capital of the new Ñuble Region since 6 Sept ...
, destroying more than half of it, including around 3,500 homes and the recently constructed Casa Rabié which then was in the city. Aftershocks followed although they were less intense, which left the city completely destroyed. Until then, the Cathedral of Chillán had been one of the principal buildings of the area, but it was completely destroyed. The church that was built to replace it was designed specifically to withstand future earthquakes. At 23:35, Concepción was violently hit. Almost all of the buildings (around 95% of the houses) were completely destroyed. There was a show going on in the theater where the large chandelier started to swing. The people inside were terrified, so they fled down the stairs, but the spiral staircase cracked, causing many people to fall into the gap. In the intersection of O’Higgins and Aníbal Pinto avenue, the bodies accumulated, which were later brought to the cemetery, and interred in large strips of land. The electricity was cut in all of the city and tens of fires were reported in various points of the city. The
potable water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, ag ...
supply was also seriously affected. The material damage in all of the city was evaluated to be more than three thousand million pesos. Various emblematic buildings of the city were destroyed, like the central market,
Correos de Chile Correos de Chile, also known as CorreosChile (''ChilePost'' —not to be confused with the private mail and courier company ChilePost), is a Chilean state-owned and autonomous enterprise dedicated to the mailing, money transfers, and national/int ...
, but the most emblematic was the plaza of independence, which was seriously damaged. Its two towers leaned dangerously, and because of this, they had to be demolished. Another building that was affected was the first building of the old Central Station of Concepción. In 1941, the construction of a second station building began.


Geology

The community of Chillán is situated in the continental territory of Chile. The city of Chillán was built on a tectonic structure at the end of the
Tertiary Period Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
in the part of the
Longitudinal Valley A longitudinal valley is an elongated valley found between two almost-parallel mountain chains in geologically young fold mountains, such as the Alps, Carpathians, Andes, or the highlands of Central Asia. They are often occupied and shaped by a ...
which is identified with the Central level. Morphologically, the land corresponds to an alluvial plain, which predominates with
fluvioglacial sediments Glaciofluvial deposits or Glacio-fluvial sediments consist of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay from ice sheets or glaciers. They are transported, sorted and deposited by streams of water. The deposits are formed beside, below or downstream ...
, conformed during the Cuaternario by the action of the Rivers Nuble and Cato in the north and the River Chillán in the south, both tributary streams of the large drainage basin of Itata. The natural flow of the enclave of Chillán is confirmed by later geological studies, found the root of the earthquake of 1939, when a prospection of more than 80 meters was carried out, without finding the
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
.


Response

In the aftermath, the government created
CORFO The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from es, Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile. ...
(Spanish acronym for ''Production Development Corporation'') to help in the reconstruction of the country and to industrialize the country, mechanize the agriculture and help mining to develop.


Gallery

Image:Calle Barros Arana en 1939.jpg, Concepción Image:Miradoraleman1938.jpg, "El Mirador Alemán", in Concepción Image:1939 Chile Earthquake Memorial Placard.jpg, A memorial placard next to the cathedral in Chillán commemorates the victims 50 years later


See also

*
List of earthquakes in 1939 This is a list of earthquakes in 1939. Only magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes appear on the list. Lower magnitude events are included if they have caused death, injury or damage. Events which occurred in remote areas will be excluded from the ...
*
List of earthquakes in Chile __NOTOC__ Chile lay in a region which is adjacent to the fast-moving Nazca Plate, and has high tectonic activity. The records for earlier centuries are apparently incomplete. Of the world's 46 known earthquakes with M ≥ 8.5 since the year 1 ...


References


Further reading

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1939 Chillan earthquake Megathrust earthquakes in Chile History of Biobío Region Chillan Concepción, Chile History of Ñuble Region 1939 disasters in South America