Why Is Chile Long and Skinny?

Why is Chile so long and skinny?

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile on Saturday was just one of more than a dozen catastrophic quakes to strike the country in the last half-century. Seismologists blame Chile's serpentine, 4,000-mile Pacific border, which runs directly astride the convergent boundary of the Nazca and South American plates. How did Chile get to be long and skinny, anyway?

Natural boundaries and military conquests. Chile has had its current shape since the late 1880s, when the nation finally captured its southern territories. Its meager width and impressive length have differing origins, however. The former is determined by the local geography: The country is wedged between the Andes mountain range to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. As such, it measures an average of only 109 miles across, but even that understates how narrow the country really is. The mountains that run along the border with Argentina occupy between one-third and one-half of Chile's width. Most Chileans live in the country's fertile Central Valley, a narrow ribbon of habitable land that runs alongside a smaller range of mountains on the coast.


Chile's length is largely a product of colonial expansion and modern military campaigns. In the 16th century, a contingent of conquistadors migrated into the area from the Peruvian colony, in search of gold. They settled near present-day Santiago, with some more outposts farther south. The Andes, which are the highest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere, discouraged the Spaniards from extending their colony to the east.

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