Mw 7.6 Isla Chiloe, Los Lagos, Chile

On 25 December 2016 a major earthquake occurred at Isla Chiloe, Los Lagos, Chile at a depth of 30 km. The seismic event occurred at 14:22:26 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 7.6.

December 2016 — starting on the 6th — was considered very critical due to an unusual number of planetary alignments. From the 6th to the 30th fifteen alignments occurred, which is an average of one alignment per less than two days.

The earthquake at Isla Chiloe was the third major earthquake in December 2016. While the Mercury-Sun-Saturn alignment on the 25th was critical, lunar geometry was more directly involved as it peaked 20 on the 22nd. The reason for this high lunar peak was Earth's position between Jupiter and Uranus — which became exact on the 26th — as the Moon lined up with both planets within an hour, which is considered highly critical. Similar geometry occurred when Earth lined up with Jupiter and Neptune in September 2015, resulting in a Mw 8.3 earthquake offshore Coquimbo, Chile. Perfect examples demonstrating the seismic effects of Earth between outer planets in combination with critical lunar geometry can be found in 1905 and 1906 when Earth was repeatedly close between Uranus and Neptune, which only happens roughly every 170 years.

Note: WPG analysis is not included in this report.

Mars-Sun-Jupiter          2016-12-22,  6:13:41  189°57'51"

Earth-Moon-Jupiter        2016-12-22, 18:04:58  199°50'06"
Moon-Earth-Uranus         2016-12-22, 19:05:49   20°20'25"

Mercury-Sun-Saturn        2016-12-25, 21:26:57  259°05'45"
Jupiter-Earth-Uranus      2016-12-26, 17:43:10   20°19'28"
          

SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry