1960 Valdivia earthquake
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake () or Great Chilean earthquake ("Gran terremoto de Chile") of 22 May is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale. It occurred in the afternoon (19:11 GMT, 15:11 local time), and lasted approximately 10 minutes. The resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia and the Aleutian Islands.
Puyehue-Cordón Caulle
Two days after the main shock of the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest earthquake recorded in history, Cordón Caulle erupted. The eruption was believed to have been caused by the earthquake. The earthquake had struck the whole of Chile between Talca (30°S) and Chiloé (43°S) and had an estimated moment magnitude of 9.5. Being located between two sparsely populated and by then isolated Andean valleys the eruption had few eyewitnesses and received little attention by local media due to the huge damages and losses caused by the main earthquake. The eruption was fed by a long and north west-west (N135°) trending fissure along which 21 individual vents have been found. These vents produced an output of about 0.25 km³ DRE both in form of lava flows and tephra.