The 1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes occurred slightly more than eight hours apart on 17 December. Their
epicenter
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
s were located in the east of the Chilean
Tierra del Fuego Province, close to the Argentine border on the island of
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...
.
The two shocks measured 7.7 and 7.6 on the
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, 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. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
and were the most powerful ever recorded in the south of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and one of the most powerful in
austral Chile. They were felt with intensities as high as VIII (''Severe'') on the
Mercalli intensity scale, and affected the settlements of
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...
and
Río Gallegos.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 1949
*
List of earthquakes in Chile __NOTOC__
Chile lay in a region which is adjacent to the fast-moving Nazca Plate, and has high tectonic activity. The records for earlier centuries are apparently incomplete.
Of the world's 46 known earthquakes with M ≥ 8.5 since the year 15 ...
*
List of earthquakes in Argentina
This is a list of earthquakes in Argentina.
* Details are approximate for old events.
* Magnitude is measured in the Richter magnitude scale.
* Intensity is measured in the Mercalli intensity scale.
* Depth is given in miles.
1600-1899
20th c ...
References
External links
* Instituto Nacional de Prevención Sísmica
''Listado de Terremotos Históricos''
*
1949
1949 Tierra
History of Tierra del Fuego
History of Magallanes Region
Presidential Republic (1925–1973)
Tierra Del Fuego Earthquake, 1949
Tierra Del Fuego Earthquake, 1949
Tierra del Fuego, 1949
December 1949 events in South America
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