5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes coastline of northern Chile

 

November 5, 2011 – SANTIAGO (Reuters) – A 5.7 magnitude earthquake shook northern Chile early on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of any damage to property or copper mines in the area, emergency and mine officials said. The temblor struck at 3:13 a.m. EDT and was centered 13 miles northeast of Antofagasta, at a depth of 20.5 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, revising the quake down from an original reading of 6.0 magnitude. State emergency office ONEMI said the temblor had knocked out cell phone services in some areas, but it had received no reports of damages. A union official at Anglo American’s 90,000 tonne per year Mantos Blancos deposit near the epicenter said workers had felt the tremor, but operations were not affected. –Yahoo News

This earthquake is the latest disturbance to erupt from the seismic tension still agitating the Nazca tectonic plate boundary bordering Chile. The Nazca Plate is subducting under the South American tectonic plate along the Peru-Chile Trench. Second only to the U.S. west coast, it is the longest and most violent subduction of a tectonic plate along a major land mass in the world. The largest earthquake in recorded history, a 9.5 magnitude, occurred in Chile in 1960. The powerful earthquake killed 1655 people and left more than 2 million people homeless. –The Extinction Protocol

contribution Jamie