The low level of fatalities was attributed to the gradual increase in the intensity of shaking and that the earthquake occurred during the middle of the day, giving most of the inhabitants time to get clear.

[6] Charles Darwin was visiting the area while on the second voyage of HMS Beagle and recorded his observations of the earthquake in Valdivia and its effects and the subsequent tsunami in Concepción and Talcahuano.

[5] He remarked: An earthquake instantly reverses the strongest ideas, the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has trembled under our feet like a thin crust placed on a fluid, a space of a second was enough to awaken the imagination a strange feeling of insecurity which hours of reflection would not have occurred.

It has been noted, with some truth, that being general destruction, no one felt more humble than his neighbour, no one could accuse his friends of coldness, two causes which always added a sharp pain to the loss of wealth.

... Beagle's captain, Robert FitzRoy, wrote a paper suggesting that the earthquake had affected the currents running along the South American coast.

The paper was submitted to the Admiralty during the court martial of Captain Michael Seymour of HMS Challenger, whose ship was run ashore on rocks in May 1835 near the mouth of the Leübu River.