Massive earthquake strikes Chile

[RuleBritannia]

A massive earthquake with an initial magnitude of 8.8 magnitude has struck central Chile.



The quake struck at 0634 GMT about 91km (56 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 317km south-west of the capital, Santiago.

Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said that she had reports of six deaths so far and could not rule out that there might be more.

The US issued an initial tsunami warning for Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

That was later extended to Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.

Japan's meteorological agency has warned of a potential tsunami across large areas of the Pacific.

Aftershock

President Bachelet called on people to remain calm and contact the authorities if they needed help.

She said: "The country has just experienced an enormous earthquake... we are in the process of finding out about the effects of the quake across the region, the state of the roads and hospitals, the damage to buildings and of course the number of those killed and injured."

Ms Bachelet, who has now gone into an emergency meeting, said that there were areas of the country where communications were down and teams were working to restore them.

Buildings in Santiago were reported to have shaken for between 10 and 30 seconds, with the loss of electricity and communications.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake struck at a depth of about 35km.

It recorded a 6.2 magnitude aftershock in the same area soon after at 0652 GMT.

The USGS said tsunami effects had been observed at Valparaiso, west of Santiago, with a wave height of 1.29m above normal sea level.

One journalist speaking to Chilean national television from the city of Temuco, 600km south of Santiago, said many people there had left their homes, determined to spend the rest of the night outside. Some people on the streets were in tears.

Mark Winstanley, who contacted the BBC from Vina del Mar, 100km north-west of Santiago, said buildings had shaken and electricity and phone connections were cut but he could see no structural damage yet.

A university professor in Santiago, Cristian Bonacic, said that this was a massive quake but that the cities seemed to have resisted well. Internet communications were working but not mobile phones.

Chile suffered the biggest earthquake of the 20th century when a 9.5 magnitude quake struck the city of Valdivia in 1960, killing 1,655 people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8540289.stm

[Valden]

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

[Crocodile Gandhi]

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

Too bad God always decides to have these earthquakes occur along fault lines. If he had them going in New York, Paris, and London we might take more heed of his warnings.

[RuleBritannia]

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

No one is reported dead yet, but the quake happened at 0634 GMT which would be 0234 in Chile (on a Friday night), so it's unlikely there will be no deaths.

[Valden]

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

No one is reported dead yet, but the quake happened at 0634 GMT which would be 0234 in Chile (on a Friday night), so it's unlikely there will be no deaths.

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

Too bad God always decides to have these earthquakes occur along fault lines. If he had them going in New York, Paris, and London we might take more heed of his warnings.

Try telling them that.

[Faithfree]

oO Interesting! Glad no one has died.

I bet the people at the Rapture Ready forum are going "Look at all these earthquakes! It's surely a sign of the times and that the rapture will happen soon!"

No one is reported dead yet, but the quake happened at 0634 GMT which would be 0234 in Chile (on a Friday night), so it's unlikely there will be no deaths.

8.8 is massive (8.5 was mentioned on another new site, but that's still big), so I'm sure that unfortunately there will be plenty of casualties to report once communications lines are established.

[hotshoe]

The "good news" is that the nearest large city was pretty far away, about 100 km away, so an intense concentration of population (like Port-au-Prince) was not directly at the epicenter. The bad news is that the mostly-rural region will be even harder to reach for aid and rescue, as the roads were primitive to begin with, and other infrastructure (hospitals, air strips, etc) will not be sufficient for the needs, even where the infrastructure is still standing.

And it was powerful almost beyond imagining. There is news that buildings collapsed in Santiago, 325 km away from the epicenter.

[JimC]

Does anybody know yet whether a tsunami is possible (I'm thinking of the Pacific Islands)

I know that pwerful earthquakes do not always generate significant tsunamis, it depends on the nature of any movement of the sea floor...

[hotshoe]

The West Coast Tsunami Warning Center states that there is no warning for this one.
Edit, that's the west coast of USA and Canada to Alaska.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center states that there is a possibility that Hawaii will be elevated to a watch or a warning later this morning.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/h ... 084523.txt

[hotshoe]

Further information:
A tsunami was generated by this earthquake along the Chile/Peru coast with forecast impact on Antarctica and north to Panama/Costa Rica.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/p ... 084258.txt

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----
CORRAL CL 39.9S 73.4W 0739Z 0.90M / 2.9FT 16MIN
SAN FELIX CL 26.3S 80.1W 0815Z 0.53M / 1.7FT 08MIN
VALPARAISO CL 33.0S 71.6W 0708Z 1.29M / 4.2FT 20MIN
TALCAHUANO CL 36.7S 73.4W 0652Z 1.15M / 3.8FT 46MIN

LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.

EVALUATION

SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER AND
COULD ALSO BE A THREAT TO MORE DISTANT COASTS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD
TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS
CENTER WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA TO DETERMINE THE
EXTENT AND SEVERITY OF THE THREAT.

[hotshoe]

Tsunami watch in effect for Australia NSW, Queensland, and nearby islands.

http://www.bom.gov.au/tsunami/national.shtml

Tsunami waves may start affecting the following States and Territories after
these local times:
Norfolk Is after 08:30 am (UTC+11.5hrs) Sunday
Lord Howe Is after 08:30 am (EDT) Sunday
New South Wales after 08:45 am (EDT) Sunday
Queensland after 08:15 am (EST) Sunday

What time is it there, now, Jim ?

[JimC]

Tsunami watch in effect for Australia NSW, Queensland, and nearby islands.

http://www.bom.gov.au/tsunami/national.shtml

Tsunami waves may start affecting the following States and Territories after
these local times:
Norfolk Is after 08:30 am (UTC+11.5hrs) Sunday
Lord Howe Is after 08:30 am (EDT) Sunday
New South Wales after 08:45 am (EDT) Sunday
Queensland after 08:15 am (EST) Sunday

What time is it there, now, Jim ?

8.25 PM

Tomorrow morning, then. My state, Victoria, is on the southern rather than the eastern coast of Australia...

[RuleBritannia]

It's 20:25 in New South Wales. 19:25 in Queensland.

[hotshoe]

They're monitoring gauges and satellites all across the Pacific.

They'll know before morning whether it has fizzled out or whether it will be elevated to a WARNING instead of just a watch.

[JimC]

It's 20:25 in New South Wales. 19:25 in Queensland.

Queensland is a bit weird, they don't do Summer Time...