I am reading about the Chile earthquake and tsunami that took place in 1960. I w

Question

I am reading about the Chile earthquake and tsunami that took place in 1960. I was given this article to read and answer questions. The only question I am having trouble answering is this one:

https://www.npr.org/2016/08/29/490239181/when-the-biggest-earthquake-ever-recorded-hit-chile-it-rocked-the-world

4. Why would the size and shape of Chile have changed the way it did

Chile actually grew in size during the earthquake and I cannot figure out why. I know it has to do with it being a convergent boundary but I'm stuck..

Please help!

Explanation / Answer

This earthquake was the largest ever instrumentally recorded. It measured a 9.5 on the Moment Magnitude (Mw) scale, but registered only an 8.5 on the Ms scale. The damage from the quake was not limited to the nearby shores of Chile. Enormous waves traveled for thousands of miles across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the shores of Hawaii, the Philippines, and even Japan devastating everything in their path. The tsunamis were created by the shifting of the sea floor that generated the huge temblor. But width and impressive length of Chile have differing origins, however. The former is determined by the local geography. The country is wedged between the Andes mountain range to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. As such, it measures an average of only 109 miles across, but even that understates how narrow the country really is. The mountains that run along the border with Argentina occupy between one-third and one-half of Chile's width. Most Chileans live in the country's fertile Central Valley, a narrow ribbon of habitable land that runs alongside a smaller range of mountains on the coast. The Andes, which are the highest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere, discouraged the Spaniards from extending their colony to the east.

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