How Chile survived an 8.8 earthquake and a tsunami

On February 27, 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 was recorded off the central Chilean coast. Strong tremors were felt throughout Chile, including Santiago, and aftershocks continue.


How was the Earthquake and

 Tsunami created?

 http://youtu.be/I86V6AJuPVU

The earthquake was generated at the gently sloping fault that conveys the Nazca plate eastward and downward beneath the South American plate. The two plates are converging at 7 meters per century. The fault rupture, largely offshore, exceeded 100 km in width and extended nearly 500 km parallel to the coast. The sudden burst began deep beneath the coast and spread westward, northward, and southward. As it spread, the fault slip generated earthquake shaking. The fault slip also warped the ocean floor, setting off the tsunami along the fault-rupture area.


 In the 2 1/2 hours following the 90-second quake, the U.S. Geological Survey reported 11 aftershocks, of which five measured 6.0 or above.
The quake hit 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Santiago, at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers) at 3:34 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The epicenter was just 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.


It is clear that Chile has gone through its fair share of earthquakes and tsunamis over hundreds of years but what is evident to us today is that the Chilean government and people have consciously prepared their country for these catastrophes that they are at high risk of going through. 
In the Huffingtion Post was an article about Chile-Haiti Earthquake Comparison: Chile was more prepared and it stated that:  
Chileans have homes and offices built to ride out quakes, their steel skeletons designed to sway with seismic waves rather than resist them.

Sinclair said he has architect colleagues in Chile who have built thousands of low-income housing structures to be earthquake resistant.

"On a per-capita basis, Chile has more world-renowned seismologists and earthquake engineers than anywhere else," said Brian E. Tucker, president of GeoHazards International, a nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, California.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/27/chile-haiti-earthquake-co_n_479705.html