Chile: On the Circle of Fire

LIKE the Andean republics to the north, Chile lies along the "circle of fire," a ring of volcanoes and seismic fault lines that encircle the Pacific Basin. The west coast of South America, in particular, is a storm center of seismic shocks set off by the depth and turbulence of the Peru-Chile trench offshore. One such shock struck Peru in May 1970, killing an estimated 50,000 people. The Chileans too have paid a heavy price for their geography. Some 3,000 Chileans were killed in the 1906 earthquake, 30,000 in 1939 and 5,000 in 1960. The last serious quake occurred in 1965, taking about 300 lives.

At 11:03 one evening last week, an earthquake struck central Chile once again. Damage in the capital of Santiago itself was not heavy. But next morning, when President Salvador Allende Gossens flew to the agricultural regions of Illapel and Salamanca, he was stunned. "It was dreadful," he said of the scene in Hierro Viejo (pop. 5,000), where virtually every building had been destroyed. The toll: at least 90 persons killed, 250 injured and 15,000 left homeless.

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