The earthquake made Chile separate from America

According to a report by the Chilean Military Geographic Institute on April 26, before the earthquake in February, Chile is moving along the entire continent to the north-east of Africa. But now, this land goes in the opposite direction: to the southwest to the Pacific Ocean.

New location shift map of some cities in Chile - Photo: University of Hawaii

'We found 3-4 cm daily movement in the area of ​​Cobquecura and Concepcion cities (500km from Santiago), which means one meter per month and the land will go to the sea , ' said Juan. Vidal, Director of the Chilean Military Geographic Institute, warned.

The agency has 50 measuring stations installed from central to southern Chile to observe geographic changes. They said the difference is difficult to see with the naked eye but will be a problem for the mapping industry and the legality of land sovereignty.

American engineering universities like University of Hawaii, Ohio, Memphis, California Institute of Technology . are also involved in studying this interesting phenomenon. The team deduced the movement of cities by comparing the exact location via satellite image 10 days before and 10 days after the earthquake.

They recognized some other areas in South America, not only Chile, but also moved west. For example, Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, also slides to the west 1 inch (2.34 cm). Chile's Santiago capital slid markedly to 11 inches (25.7 cm) southwest. The cities of Valparaiso and Argentina's Mendoza, located in the northeast of Concepcion, also experienced significant displacement.

The epicenter of the earthquake in the area is called the "fire ring" of the earth - an area that appears to have many large earthquakes surrounding the Pacific Ocean. Along this 'ring of fire', moving stratigraphic plates collided with each other in fractured areas. In the earthquake in Chile on February 27, Nazca tectonic plates were forced down to the South American plate.

Source: Los Andes