http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7403578/Chile-ea...



Chile earthquake moved city of Concepcion 10ft to the west
The massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck the west coast of Chile last month moved the entire city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west, research has found.


Published: 7:00AM GMT 09 Mar 2010

Residents look at a collapsed building in Concepcion, Chile Photo: AP

The power of the earthquake, which is estimated to have killed more than 800 people, shifted other parts of South America from the Falkland Islands to Fortaleza, Brazil.

The preliminary measurements, produced from data gathered by researchers from four universities and several agencies, including geophysicists on the ground in Chile, show that Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina moved about 1 inch to the west.

Chile's capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches to the west-southwest. The cities of Valparaiso and Mendoza, Argentina, northeast of Concepcion, also moved significantly.

The research team worked out the movements by comparing precise GPS (global positioning satellite) locations prior to the major earthquake to those almost 10 days later.

Mike Bevis, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, has led a project since 1993 that has been measuring crustal motion and deformation in the Central and Southern Andes.

"By reoccupying the existing GPS stations, CAP can determine the displacements, or 'jumps', that occurred during the earthquake," Mr Bevis said. "By building new stations, the project can monitor the postseismic deformations that are expected to occur for many years, giving us new insights into the physics of the earthquake process."