Chile — Earthquakes (Rainbow)

Chile is a hotspot for earthquakes because the Nazca plate, a tectonic plate that moves eastwards at 6.6 cm per year, collides with the South American plate off the Chilean coast. The Nazca plate submerged below the South American plate, and the pressure building up between the two plates is eventually released in the form of an earthquake.

Of the world's 36 known earthquakes with M ≥ 8.5 since the year 1500, one-third occurred in Chile. The strongest known recorded in modern times was also in Chile, the 1960 Valdivia earthquake. With this data visualisation art print, we show the nine major earthquakes that were felt or with their epicentre within Chile's current borders.