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Chile earthquake: Coastal regions evacuated after powerful 8.2 magnitude tremor in Pacific triggers tsunami
Chile earthquake: Disaster declared after huge quake generates tsunami, kills five and prompts mass evacuations
(about 2 hours later)
A powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off northern Chile last night, setting off a small tsunami that forced evacuations along the country's entire Pacific coast. Five people were crushed to death or suffered fatal heart attacks, the interior minister said, but Chile apparently escaped major damage or serious casualties.
A powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Chile claiming five lives, triggering small landslides and generating a tsunami.
The shaking loosened landslides that blocked roads, power failed for thousands, an airport was damaged and several businesses caught fire. About 300 inmates escaped from a women's prison in the city of Iquique, and Chile's military was sending a planeload of special forces to help police guard against looting.
Three northern regions of the country have been declared disaster areas after the quake struck at 20:46 local time (23:46 GMT).
In the city of Arica, 86 miles from the quake's epicentre, hospitals were treating minor injuries, and some homes made of adobe were destroyed and 90 per cent of customers were without power, authorities said.
The epicentre was around 86km (52 miles) north-west of the mining area of Iquique, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake also shook modern buildings in nearby Peru and in Bolivia's high altitude capital of La Paz.
The Chilean navy has reported that some areas in the north of the coutry were hit by waves around 45 minutes after the quake hit.
Hours later, a tsunami warning remained in effect for northern Chile, but alerts were lifted elsewhere.
There have been reports of waves measuring up to seven feet prompting a mass evacuation of coastal areas throughout the country. Chilean television images showed massive traffic jams as people attempted to flee affected areas.
“We regard the coast line of Chile as still dangerous, so we're maintaining the warning,” geophysicist Gerard Fryer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center told The Associated Press.
Interior minister Rodrigo Penailillo announced the five deaths and said they included people who were crushed by collapsing walls or were killed by heart attacks including Easter Island and the archipelago of Juan Fernández.
Chile's Emergency Office said its tsunami watch would remain in effect for six more hours, meaning hundreds of thousands of people along the coast would not sleep in their beds. Swimmers and surfers in the US state of Hawaii, thousands of miles away in the Pacific, might see higher waves today, the warning center said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was shallow at 12.5 miles (20.1 km) below the seabed and struck about 100 km northwest of the mining port of Iquique near the Peruvian border.
The US Geological Survey initially reported the quake at 8.0, but later upgraded the magnitude. It said the quake struck 61 miles northwest of Iquique, hitting a region that has been rocked by numerous quakes over the past two weeks.
The shaking caused landslides that blocked roads, knocked out power for thousands, damaged an airport and provoked fires that destroyed several businesses.
Psychiatrist Ricardo Yevenes said he was with a patient in Arica when the quake hit. “It quickly began to move the entire office, things were falling,” he told local television. “Almost the whole city is in darkness.”
In the city of Iquique, around 300 inmates escaped from a women's prison.
The extent of the quake damage has not yet been fully assessed, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet said, but she sent a military plane with 100 anti-riot police to join 300 soldiers deployed to prevent looting and round up the escaped prisoners.
President Michelle Bachelet said the country had "faced the emergency well" and called on those in affected regions "to keep calm and follow instructions from the authorities". She is due to visit affected areas on Thursday.
At least twenty strong aftershocks followed in the few hours after the quake, including a 6.2 tremor and geophysicists have warned of potential further consequences relating to the quake.
Geophysicist Gerard Fryer said: "We regard the coast line of Chile as still dangerous, so we're maintaining the warning."
Ms Bachelet, who just returned to the presidency three weeks ago, spoke well after midnight, five hours after the quake struck.
It was not lost on many Chileans that the last time she presided over a major quake, days before the end of her 2006-10 term, her emergency preparedness office prematurely waved off a tsunami danger.
Most of the 500 dead from that magnitude-8.8 tremor survived the shaking, only to be caught in killer waves in a disaster that destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away large parts of many coastal communities.
That quake released so much energy, it actually shortened the Earth's day by a fraction of a second by changing the planet's rotation.
"The country has done a good job of confronting the emergency. I call on everyone to stay calm and follow the authorities' instructions," she tweeted after the latest quake.
The US Geological Survey initially reported the quake at 8.0 but later upgraded the magnitude of the quake that struck 61 miles north west of Iquique. More than 20 significant aftershocks followed, including a 6.2 tremor. More aftershocks and even a larger quake could not be ruled out, said seismologist Mario Pardo at the University of Chile.
The quake was so strong that the shaking experienced in Bolivia's capital about 290 miles away was the equivalent of a 4.5-magnitude tremor, authorities there said.
The quake was so strong that the shaking experienced in Bolivia's capital about 290 miles away was the equivalent of a 4.5-magnitude tremor, authorities there said.
More than 10 strong aftershocks followed in the first few hours, including a 6.2 tremor. More aftershocks and even a larger quake could not be ruled out, said seismologist Mario Pardo at the University of Chile.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said President Michelle Bachelet was closely watching the situation and was ready to take “any measures” to ensure people's safety. Hundreds of soldiers were being deployed in the quake zone, and a flight would be leaving soon with 100 special forces on board, he added.
“We have taken action to ensure public order in the case of Iquique, where we've had a massive escape of more than 300 female prisoners from the Iquique jail, so that the armed forces and police can coordinate and provide tranquility and security to the residents,” he said.
Some roads in northern Chile were blocked by landslides, causing traffic jams among people leaving the coast. But coastal residents remained calm as they head inland while waves measuring almost 2 metres (6 feet) struck their cities.
Evacuations also were ordered in Peru, where waves 2 metres above normal forced about 200 people to leave the seaside town of Boca del Rio. But there were no injuries or major damage, said Col. Enrique Blanco, the regional police chief in Tacna, a Peruvian city of 300,000 near the Chilean border. “The lights went out briefly, but were re-established,” Blanco said. Peru's 'Costa Verde' bay remains close following a tsunami alert
Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because just off the coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes.
The latest activity began with a strong magnitude-6.7 quake on 16 March that caused more than 100,000 people to briefly evacuate low-lying areas. Hundreds of smaller quakes followed in the weeks since, keeping people on edge as scientists said there was no way to tell if the unusual string of tremors was a harbinger of an impending disaster.
The last recorded big quake to hit far northern Chile around Iquique was a devastating magnitude-8.3 in 1877. It unleashed a 24-metre-high (nearly 80-foot-high) tsunami, causing major damage along the Chile-Peru coast and fatalities as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
A magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in central Chile in 2010 killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts. That quake released so much energy, it actually it shortened the Earth's day by a fraction of a second by changing the planet's rotation.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth also happened in Chile — a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.
Chile is the world's leading copper producing nation, and most of its mining industry is in the northern regions. Top mining companies said there was no serious damage to their operations so far.
