SISMOS HISTÓRICOS Y RECIENTES EN MAGALLANES

Abstract

Earthquakes in Magallanes, southern Chile, are associated to the relative motions (smaller than 2 cm./y) of three plates: South-American, Antarctic and Scotia. Thus, the seismicity is low as compared with northern Chile where the Nazca and South-American plates converge at a rate of about 10 cm./y. In Magallanes however, two main historical earthquakes (M-L = 7.5) occurred in 1879 and 1949. Recent seismicity, registered in 1997 and 1998, of magnitude smaller than 4.3 is located within the continental crust. Some very shallow earthquakes concentrate around two active volcanoes: Reclus and Burney. Short descriptions of the 2007 seismic cluster in Aysen and the 2008 eruption of the Chaiten volcano are also included.