Bonus Subduction Boundary: Chile

I know, I know.  I said the convergent collision at the Himalayas was the last stop, but I think that a bonus stop is in order.  For our absolute final stop, we will journey to Chile, to view the subduction boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American plate. 

http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Destinations/Search-Results/World/South-America/Chile/

To review a subduction boundary, when the two plates collide at this kind of boundary, the denser one slides under the less dense one.  The plate that slides under is heated and some of it melts into magma.  The less dense magma rises, and the pressure creates a volcano.

The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America.  The eastern border is a convergent boundary subduction zone under the South American Plate and the Andes Mountains, forming the Peru-Chile Trench.  One of the strongest earthquakes to occur at this boundary was the 2010 Chile earthquake, occurring off the coast of central Chile on February 27.  Having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, it ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever to be recorded by a seismograph.  It was strongly felt in six different Chilean regions that together make up about 80 percent of the country’s population.

http://atty-platetectonictrip.blogspot.com/2011/04/hello-my-name-is-atty-and-today-is.html

Well, that brings a close to our journey! Thank you for choosing our tours, and I hope to see you again!