Editor's Summary
15 September 2005
Earthquake succession
The common assumption that the longer the time since an earthquake, the larger the next earthquake slip, seemed not to apply to the giant magnitude 9.5 Chile earthquake of 1960. It had been 123 years since the last earthquake but the 1960 slip was equivalent to about 300 years' worth of plate motion. Based on historical writings, estuarine stratigraphy, diatom palaeoecology and tree ring data, Cisternas et al. have profiled the predecessors of the Chile earthquake in 1575, 1737 and 1837. This history shows that the giant earthquake of 1960 released strain that lesser events had left unspent. Stress build-up through multiple recurrence intervals may also have contributed to the extreme magnitude of the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake.
News and Views: Earthquakes: Giant returns in time
The behaviour of a seismic fault in Chile seemed to confound predictions of how often giant earthquakes should recur. Examination of a 2,000-year record of tsunami deposits in the region clarifies matters.
Sergio Barrientos
doi:10.1038/437329a
Letter: Predecessors of the giant 1960 Chile earthquake
Marco Cisternas, Brian F. Atwater, Fernando Torrejón, Yuki Sawai, Gonzalo Machuca, Marcelo Lagos, Annaliese Eipert, Cristián Youlton, Ignacio Salgado, Takanobu Kamataki, Masanobu Shishikura, C. P. Rajendran, Javed K. Malik, Yan Rizal and Muhammad Husni
doi:10.1038/nature03943
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