Chile Earthquake Moved Entire City 10 Feet to the West

The magnitude 8.8 quake that struck near Maule, Chile, Feb. 27 moved the entire city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west.

Precise GPS measurements from before and after the earthquake, the fifth largest ever recorded by seismographs, show that the country’s capital, Santiago, moved 11 inches west. Even Buenos Aires, nearly 800 miles from the epicenter, shifted an inch. The image above uses red arrows to represent the relative direction and magnitude of the ground movement in the vicinity of the quake.

–via Wired.com

I don’t know what’s more amazing, the fact that this entire city moved 10 feet, or that scientists are able to know that it moved 10 feet.