October 28, 1562 Earthquake: Chile

A severe earthquake in which many houses were destroyed is reported to have occurred in Concepcion (then situated on the ocean shore in the area of the present city of Penco) and Arauco at dawn. According to the chronicles, the earthquake caused topographical changes such as the disappearance of some hills and lagoons and the appearance of others. Apparently the source of the earthquake was situated between 37 deg and 39 deg south. The tsunami that followed the earthquake affected the coast for a distance of 1200 km (300 leagues) and caused numerous deaths amongst the Indians.

The descriptions of the Oct 28, 1562 and Feb 28, 1570 events are very similar. Therefore, it is possible that in reality only one catastrophic tsunami occurred in 1570.

(all comments from Reference #415, Soloviev, 1975).

1562, Oct 28, 10 UTC, 38.7 S, 73.15 W, intensity XI, tsunami, casualties. (reference #1206)

October 28th, 1562. This earthquake appears in several European books published around the turn of the 17th century. In the Chilean documentation, the Spanish military historian, Alonso Gonzalez de Najera mentions Chile's first earthquake was in Concepcion in 1562. The European publications put the earthquake and a connected tsunami off the coast of Arauco on October 28th, 1562. However, a closer look at the European publications shows that their descriptions of the quake are taken from an unsigned report of the 1575 Valdivia earthquake. At the same time, Alonso Gonzalez de Najera wrote his chronicle or treatise on the Chilean Indian war upon his return to Spain, drawing upon local published reports to fill in the cultural gaps. He clearly states that Concepcion was destroyed by Chile's first historical earthquake and that Valdivia was destroyed by the second. No local documentation in Chile or the Spanish archives refers to the 1562 earthquake or tsunami. However, some local officials paraphrased the same description used to describe the 1562 event when talking about the large earthquake that predated the 1647 destruction of Santiago. Therefore, we concur with the Chilean historian Thayer Ojeda in suggesting that this seismic event simply never occurred. (reference #13897)