The 2007 Aysén Fjord earthquakes occurred in

Aisén Fjord Aysén Fjord is an ~70 km long fjord stretching east from a skerry-guarded ( skjærgård) region called Moraleda Channel ( es, Canal Moraleda), which is a body of water separating the Chonos Archipelago from the mainland of Chile. It is locat ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

from January 22 – April 22. The biggest occurred at 1:53 p.m. (local time) on April 21 and reached a felt intensity of VII (''Very strong'') on the

Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

. 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 ...

, the earthquake reached a magnitude of 6.2. Ten people disappeared due to a tsunami caused by a landslide, according to

ONEMI ONEMI or National Office of Emergency of the Interior Ministry ( es, Oficina Nacional de Emergencia del Ministerio del Interior) is a Chilean government agency dedicated to the prevention, organization, coordination and information relative to na ...

(Chile's National emergency office), but three bodies were found on April 22 by the Chilean Navy.

Earthquakes

Starting January 22, Aysén Fjord suffered a series of minor earthquakes. The greatest before April 21 reached VI (''Strong'') on the Mercalli intensity scale and occurred at 3:44 p.m. on April 14. Local fishermen reported seeing steam rising from the fjord. The earthquake expanded to several zones of the country. At 6:22 a.m. (local time) on April 22, an intense earthquake was felt in Santiago, reaching II (''Weak'') on the Mercalli intensity scale.

Intensity

According to

, the following cities and town in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region were affected. The Roman numerals show the intensity on the

. *

Puerto Chacabuco Puerto Chacabuco is a Chilean town in Aisén commune. Administratively it belongs to Aysén Province in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region and is located at the head of Aisén Fjord. It is the main port of the region, a port of ...

VII *

Puerto Aisén Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places * El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines * Puerto Colombia, Colombia * Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela * Puerto Galera, O ...

VII *

Coihaique Coyhaique (), also spelled Coihaique in Patagonia, is the capital city of both the Coyhaique Province and the Aysén Region of Chile. Founded by settlers in 1929, it is a young city. Until the twentieth century, Chile showed little interest in e ...

VI * Balmaceda V *

Cochrane Cochrane may refer to: Places Australia *Cochrane railway station, Sydney, a railway station on the closed Ropes Creek railway line Canada * Cochrane, Alberta * Cochrane Lake, Alberta * Cochrane District, Ontario ** Cochrane, Ontario, a town wit ...

Ground effects

On the mountains around the fjord, the

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

caused

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

s that in turn created waves as high as fifty meters, which severely damaged some

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

installations. The potable water systems of the cities of

and

were broken, forcing

firefighters A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

and the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

to supply water. The electricity network of

was also cut off.

Aftermath

Despite protests against the government organized by Aysen's mayor, Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, visited the affected zone. She was met with black flags, and, during the protest, Aysen's mayor Óscar Catalán was arrested. Catalán had been heavily critical that the region had not received the necessary help to prevent damage and casualties, as the swarm had been active since January.

References

External links

Se desconoce paradero de diez personas tras fuerte sismo en Aisén
– ''

El Mercurio ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in t ...

''
Landslides in Chile 4: The Punta Cola rock avalanche in Aysén Fjord
–

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

21 April 2007, Mw 6.2, Aisen, Chile
– Pacific Tsunami Warning Center * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aisen Fjord Earthquake 2007 2007 Aysen Fjord 2007 earthquakes 2007 in Chile

2007 Aysen Fjord earthquake 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...