This detailed astronaut photograph of the Chilean cities of Concepción and Hualpén was acquired from the International Space Station approximately seven hours after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred offshore 115 kilometers (71 miles) to the north-northeast. Much of the Chilean coastline is located above the boundary between the converging Nazca and South American tectonic plates. This type of plate boundary is known as a subduction zone. Such zones frequently experience moderate to strong earthquakes as one tectonic plate overrides the other. The largest earthquake worldwide during the past 200 years (magnitude 9.5 in May 1960) had a source region approximately 230 kilometers (140 miles) north of the February 27 quake.
While the image is not detailed enough to see damage to individual buildings or roadways, some indicators of earthquake damage are visible, especially in the large version of the image. A dark smoke plume is visible at image lower left near an oil refinery in Hualpén. At image lower right, parts of the road bed of a single-lane bridge over the Río Biobío appear to have collapsed. A smaller, white smoke plume is visible at image right near the Universidad de Concepción. Smoke, probably related to the earthquake, was observed over Santiago in images acquired by the Astronaut photograph ISS022-E-74881 was acquired on February 27, 2010, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 800mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 22 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC.
