No. 58 - Chile

I've mentioned previously that world geography is not a strong point of mine. So when I heard today that a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit Chile, I immediately wanted to learn a little bit more about the country.

Chile occupies a long narrow coastal strip in South America, with the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Andes Mountains to its east. Recall back in Post No. 15 we learned about little critters that call the Andes Mountains their home.

Chile is about 2,700 miles long, which is about the distance between New York City, NY and San Francisco, CA.

The earthquake hit near the capital of Santiago, which sits just about in the middle of the country. Santiago is the most populated city in Chile with about 200,000 people. That size city in the United States would rank about 100th. As a point of comparison, Pittsburgh, PA, which ranks about 60th has a population of about 310,000.

Chile ranks 1st in copper mining and produces about one-third of the world's annual output. It mines more than four times that of the 2nd ranked country -- the United States.