The 1575 Valdivia earthquake occurred at 14:30 local time on December 16. It had an estimated magnitude of 8.5 of on the

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 mag ...

scale and an estimated magnitude of 9.0+ on the

Moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

and led to the

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

, Chile. Pedro Mariño de Lobera, who was

corregidor Corregidor (, , ) is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, and is considered part of Cavite City and thus the province of Cavite. It is located west of Manila, the nation's capi ...

of Valdivia by that time, wrote that the waters of the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

opened like the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, one part flowing upstream and one downstream. Mariño de Lobera also evacuated the city until the

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

at ''Laguna de Anigua'' (nowadays Riñihue Lake) burst. At that moment he wrote that, while many Native people died, no Spaniards did, as the settlement of Valdivia was moved temporarily away from the riverside. The effects of this earthquake are similar to the

1960 Valdivia earthquake The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami () or the Great Chilean earthquake (''Gran terremoto de Chile'') occurred on 22 May 1960. Most studies have placed it at 9.5–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, while some studies have placed the magnitu ...

, the largest ever recorded on earth, which also caused ensuing Riñihuazo flooding. These similarities show that large earthquakes have a pattern that span over several centuries.

References

External links

Epicenter of 1575 Valdivia earthquake , earthquake epicenter- wikimapia.com
1575 Valdivia earthquake 1570s earthquakes 1575 in the Captaincy General of Chile 1575 Valdivia earthquake 1575 in science 1570s in the Viceroyalty of Peru {{SouthAm-earthquake-stub

See also

References

External links