The tectonic process is still happening today in Chile, meaning that volcanoes occasionally erupt, and more commonly, earthquakes occur. Earthquakes are the result of the two tectonics plates grinding past each other. In Chile, eathquakes are a near weekly occurence and very big earthquakes occur every 100 years or so. The largest earthquake ever recorded happened in Chile. It took a little while for Izzy and I to get used to our house shaking every once in a while but now we just look at each other and ask, "did you feel that!"
I am having trouble thinking of how living in a land where natural hazards are a constant presence necessarily "helps" people to live here. That said, the very reason Chile is so danger prone is the reason it is such a beautiful place. The amazing snow capped volcano I can see from my porch on a clear day was once a lava spewing monster. Chile's volcanic activity mean that on hikes you have to check the "volcanic hazard level" before leaving. It also means that you can hike to a hotspring with volcanically heated water pools at the foot of a glacier. With the hazard comes an amazing beauty! The rivers that rush out of the glacier capped Andes mountains are what make agriculture and the lush civilization that lives here possible. These beautiful awe inspiring mountains were formed by the very same grinding tectonic process that causes city flattening earthquakes. Chile is a land of extremes and the very processes that formed it's extreme beauty are what make it a hazardous place to live.
