Iloca is a small coastal town in Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, located in the commune of Licantén

Licantén

Licantén is a town within the Licantén commune, administered by the Municipality of Licantén within the Curicó Province in the Maule Region of Chile. The commune also include the coastal town of Iloca.-Demographics:...

, Curicó Province

Curicó Province

Curicó Province is one of four provinces of the central Chilean region of Maule . Its capital is the city of Curicó. It lies between the provinces of Colchagua and Talca and extends from the Pacific to the Argentine frontier, spanning an area of...

, Maule Region

Maule Region

The VII Maule Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. Its capital is Talca. The region takes its name from the Maule River which, running westward from the Andes, bisects the region and spans a basin of about 20,600 km2...

. It is located 120 kilometers west of Curicó

Curicó

Curicó , meaning "Black Waters" in Mapudungun , is the capital city of the Curicó Province, part of the Maule Region in Chile's central valley....

.

According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 345 inhabitants, although it increases considerably during the summer season.

This settlement was one of the most damaged by the 2010 Chile earthquake

2010 Chile earthquake

The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February 2010, at 03:34 local time , having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking lasting for about three minutes. It ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever to be recorded by a...

, and mostly after its tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 that hit the Chilean coast hours later. Approximately a 70% of the Iloca's constructions were destroyed by the cataclysm.

Toponymy

"Iloca" comes from Mapudungun

Mapudungun

The Mapuche language, Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It is also spelled Mapuzugun and sometimes called Mapudungu or Araucanian...

ilokan, that means in Spanish carnear (to kill an animal and to extract its meat).