Tocopilla
Coordinates: 22 ° 6 ′ S , 70 ° 12 ′ W
Tocopilla is a nitrate port in northern Chile and is located in the Región de Antofagasta .
The city in the province of Tocopilla has around 24,000 inhabitants (as of 2005). The name of the city comes from the Aymara language and means something like Great Gorge .
geography
The port city is located directly on the Pacific Ocean . To the east of the city are the up to 2300 m high mountains of the coastal cordillera . On November 14, 2007, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale struck near the small town .
history
The city was founded on September 29, 1843 by Domingo Latrille. The Sociedad de Tocopilla Mineralógica then explored small copper deposits . In 1871 saltpeter began to be shipped .
The city belonged to Bolivia until 1879 . During the Saltpeter War (1879–1883), the city was captured by Chilean troops on March 22, 1879. Then the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar looked for Chilean merchant ships off the coast of Tocopilla and brought several. Tocopilla was a very important port for the landing of Chilean troops until the Battle of Tarapacá . After that the importance of the city for the course of the war decreased.
The Maria Elena – Tocopilla railway has been connecting the city with the hinterland since 1890 . The Ferrocarril de Tocopilla al Toco was later partially electrified - and for the first time in South America, the technology of power recovery ( recuperation ) was used when braking the trains traveling downhill. The railway was in operation until August 2015, making it the last nitrate railway in Chile.
In 2007 two women died in an earthquake. There was great damage. In August 2015, the nitrate railroad was so badly damaged by storms that a medium-term reconstruction did not seem possible. Sociedad Química y Minera has therefore written off the railways worth USD 33 million in its September 2016 annual report.
economy
Tocopilla's thermal power plants are still important sources of energy for the whole of northern Chile. The fishing industry also plays a major role. The port is used for copper exports from the Chuquicamata mine and saltpeter exports from El Toco.
The high unemployment in the city leads to a strong migration of the population, especially to Antofagasta .
tourism
The long beaches and sea fishing are interesting for tourists.
sons and daughters of the town
- Alejandro Jodorowsky (* 1929), film director and actor
- Junior Fernándes (* 1988), footballer
- Alexis Sánchez (* 1988), footballer
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ SQM REPORTS EARNINGS FOR THE NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2016. (PDF) November 23, 2016, accessed October 20, 2019 .