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Headlines • Magnitude 7.6 - PAKISTAN, October 8, 2005 • Magnitude 6.1 Near the South Coast of Honshu, Japan, July 23, 2005 • Yet Another, 6.7 Quake Off The Coast Of Northern California, June 16, 2005 • 3rd Quake To Strike California This Week, June 16, 2005 • Tsunami Warning Cancelled After Magnitude 7.2 Off the Coast of Northern California, June 15, 2005 • Magnitude 8.7 - Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, March 28, 2005 • Earthquake Down Under - Magnitude 7.1 rattles Indonesia and Australia, March 2, 2005 • Worlds Strongest Quake in 40 Years Strikes Northern Sumatra: Tsunami Deal Toll Approaching 300,000, December 26, 2004 • Magnitude 7.0 - Hokkaido, Japan Rregion, November 28, 2004 • Magnitude 7.2 - Papua, Indonesia, November 26, 2004 • Magnitude 7.1 - Off West Coast Of The South Island, N.Z., November 22, 2004

The epicenter of the quake was 250 miles north of Santiago, the capital of chile; which has a population of 6 million people.

Magnitude	6.8
Date-Time	Friday, June 20, 2003 at 13:30:41 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time Friday, June 20, 2003 at 09:30:41 AM local time at epicenter
Location	30.55S 71.37W
Depth	33.0 kilometers
Region	NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE
Reference	65 km (40 miles) S of Coquimbo, Chile 280 km (175 miles) N of Valparaiso, Chile 295 km (185 miles) WNW of San Juan, Argentina 335 km (205 miles) NNW of SANTIAGO, Chile
Location Quality	Error estimate: horizontal +/- 9.1 km; depth fixed by location program
Location Quality Parameters	Nst=160, Nph=160, Dmin=912.3 km, Rmss=0.79 sec, Erho=9.1 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=42.6 degrees
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Tectonic Setting This earthquake occurred in the Chilean subduction zone, in which the dominant tectonic process is the subduction and underthrusting of the Nazca plate to the east beneath the South American plate at a rate of about 8 cm/yr. The currently available location and moment-tensor of the earthquake imply that the shock occurred as a sudden slippage on the thrust-fault boundary between the plates. The hypocenter of this event is located within a segment of the plate boundary that was ruptured in 1943 by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake.