Mw 6.3 Tarapaca, Chile
updated 1 May 2022

On 6 March 2011 a strong earthquake occurred at Tarapaca, Chile at a depth of 112 km. The seismic event occurred at 12:31:59 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 6.3.

Planetary geometry became critical a day earlier when Mercury aligned with the Sun and Saturn and Jupiter respectively, while the Moon aligned with both gas giants a good 24 hours later, which resulted in a high lunar peak (index 18). Obviously, Mercury was closely aligned with Jupiter and Saturn in opposite positions (grand opposition) and the three planets aligned on the 6th.

Major seismic activity followed on the 9th and 11th, following the Venus-Mars-Uranus alignment on the 7th.

Sun-Mercury-Uranus        2011-03-02, 19:27:00    0°11'07"
Mercury-Sun-Saturn        2011-03-05,  8:14:21  192°44'22"
Sun-Mercury-Jupiter       2011-03-05, 11:05:33   13°21'09"
Jupiter-Mercury-Saturn    2011-03-06, 15:58:41  193°00'51"
Venus-Mars-Uranus         2011-03-07,  1:28:56    2°02'53"

Earth-Moon-Neptune        2011-03-03, 14:19:11  328°45'48"
Earth-Moon-Mars           2011-03-04,  7:09:25  337°09'23"
Earth-Moon-Sun            2011-03-04, 20:26:30  343°45'23"
Earth-Moon-Mercury        2011-03-05, 12:36:11  351°45'55"
Earth-Moon-Uranus         2011-03-06,  4:16:32  359°30'58"
Earth-Moon-Jupiter        2011-03-06, 23:26:00    8°58'46"
Moon-Earth-Saturn         2011-03-07, 13:03:21  195°42'31"
					
SSGI chart
SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry

SSGI chart
SSGI depiction of total — non-interpreted — geometry