Aftershocks in Chile will persist for years

Chileans will feel the earthquake aftershock of the last few months, even years.

A Chilean man cleans the house that has collapsed due to the earthquake in the city of Talca.Photo: AP.

Chile suffered more than 200 aftershocks since the 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurred on February 27. It killed nearly 800 people, spilled many buildings, bridges and roads. Earthquakes also cause tsunamis that many people are swept out to sea. Many aftershocks with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale - strong enough to knock down buildings that were already damaged. Yesterday alone, Chileans witnessed three aftershocks.

'The bigger the earthquake, the stronger the aftershock and the longer the aftershock period appears. The number of aftershocks will decrease, but people will still feel them for months or even years , 'John Bellini, a geophysicist with the US Geological Department, told AFP.

'Chile's aftershocks are not as much as the scientific predictions, but due to the overwhelming intensity of the February 27 earthquake, they are much stronger than conventional aftershocks,' said Bill Herbert, a professor of geography Physics of Pittsburgh University, USA, commented.

In Haiti - where the 7-magnitude Richter quake turned most of Port-au-Prince into ruins in January and killed more than 200,000 people - experts calculated that there were only a few dozen aftershocks. This number is much lower than several hundred aftershocks in Chile.

'One reason is that earthquakes in Chile release about 500 times more energy than the earthquake in Haiti. It is a tremendous amount of energy and the earth is returning to its normal state after an earthquake. In the process, tectonic plates are still moving, causing aftershocks , 'explains geophysicist Jessica Sigala of the US Geological Department.

Scientists believe that aftershocks still appear many years after the 9.1 Richter earthquake in Indonesia's Sumatra island. That earthquake created a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed hundreds of thousands of people.