August 15, 1880 Earthquake: Illapel, Chile

1880, Aug 15, 8:48 [local time]. 31 S, 71.5 W, mag 7. A strong earthquake occurred with source north of Santiago.At Illapel, a loud rumbling was heard from the north. It rapidly intensified for 10 sec, after which what seemed like an explosion was heard and the ground shook violently for a minute. Two of these shocks were especially strong. All the public buildings, homes, blast furnaces and stone quarries were almost completely destroyed. 600 families were left homeless with no means of subsistence. Since it was a holiday, all the people were in the streets, as a result of which there were only two casualties. Ground waves were observed. The regime of subterranean waters and springs changed (VIII degrees, on the M. scale). Aftershocks continued at least until the first days of Oct.

Several walls collapsed at Ovalle; a number of buildings were severely damaged (VIII). Extensive physical damage was done at Salamanca (VIII). At Petorca there were strong tremors lasting 1 min, preceded by a loud rumble. Public buildings were heavily damaged. The majority of homes were rendered unfit for habitation, and some of them collapsed completely.

There was slight damage at San Felipe. A cathedral was destroyed at Quillota. One church tower collapsed, and another sank to one side at Vina del Mar. The roof of one home collapsed at Limache. At Valparaiso, cornices collapsed and walls cracked here and there. At Santiago, there were strong prolonged tremors, causing slight damage: cornices collapsed here and there, walls cracked, statues tumbled. The bells rang at Rancagua. There were strong tremors at Talca. Several dilapidated walls crumbled at Concepcion, and underground rumbling was heard from the north.

The earthquake was stronger at La Serena than at Los Vilos; one or two ranch houses sank to one side. There were strong, prolonged tremors at Copiapo. The earthquake was noted at Mendosa, La Rioja and San Juan.

There were strong tremors at Coquimbo. Large columns of water arose at sea, as a result of which the anchor chain snapped in one ship. The underwater cable across the mouth of the Limari River was broken at a depth of 1.8 km.

(above from ref #415)

1880, August 15, at 8:48 a.m. lllapel earthquake. Two persons were killed and many buildings destroyed in Illapel; Petorca was also seriously damaged... All railroad stations of the Santiago-Valparaiso line reported damage. The submarine cable was broken at a depth of 1800 meters off the estuary of the Limari River. Several landslides occurred in the Illapel-Petorca area. The epicenter of this earthquake could have been offshore; the epicentral area (VII) is more than one degree long. There are no reports from the sparsely settled coast except for Los Vilos, a locality on firm ground which shows consistently low intensities. The argument of Montessus de Ballore for an inland epicenter is not conclusive. The cable break near the mouth of the Limari River could indicate in epicenter in this vicinity. The magnitude was probably 7.5 to 8. (ref #252)

1880, Aug 15. Chile, Aconcagua, Illapel, Valparaiso, Quillola and to Coquimbo, intensity I which corresponds to an earthquake of intensity sufficient to crack walls, break chimneys, to shatter old buildings or to produce cracks in the ground. (ref #1055)

1880, Aug 15, 12:48:00 UTC. 31.62 S, 71.18 W, mag 7.7 MS, intensity X, casualties. (ref #1206)

1880, Aug 15. Illapel… It has come to be known that there were two victims from the earthquake damage (?) to the San Francisco church, one, Ms. Isquierdo (spelling?) and one 4-year old child, daughter of Mr. Pedro P. Cortes. (ref #11708)

Note:A few reports list this earthquake as occurring in Sept 1880 and causing 200 deaths (ref #11706, 11707, 11739, 11740). The El Mercurio, Chile newspaper (ref 311708) only lists an earthquake on Aug 15, 1880 that caused two deaths.