8.2 magnitude earthquake hit northern chile, 5 dead
Santiago (Chile): A powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off northern Chile, setting off a small tsunami.
Five people were crushed to death or suffered fatal heart attacks, the interior minister said, “We regard the coast line of Chile as still dangerous, so we’re maintaining the warning,” geophysicist Gerard Fryer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre told The Associated Press.
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 on Tuesday, the warning centre said.
The quake was so strong that the shaking experienced in Bolivia’s capital about 470 kilometres 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.
