The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on February 27, moved the entire city of Concepcion ten feet west. Chile's capital, Santiago, moved nearly a foot, and even Buenos Aires, some 800 miles away from the earthquake's epicenter, still moved an entire inch.

Earth scientist Mike Bevis and his team at Ohio State have been studying movements in the Earth's crust in South America with the aid of several GPS stations. Chile is especially attractive to geo-scientists the world over because of the coastal nation's proximity to a subduction zone.  All the world's largest earthquakes (and most tsunamis) are created in subduction zones.

The recent Chile quake is the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded. The largest ever recorded also in Chile, not far from the recent rumble. The earthquake was a 9.5 magnitude that struck in 1960.