Strong quake strikes Chile, tsunami alerts issued

A powerful magnitude-8.3 earthquake shook Chile’s capital Wednesday night, causing buildings to sway and people to take refuge in the streets. Several strong aftershocks hit within minutes as tsunami alarms sounded in the port of Valparaiso and authorities issued a tsunami alert for the country’s entire coast. There were no immediate reports on any injuries or damage, but communications were disrupted. American officials were also monitoring the quake to see if tsunami waves would affect the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii, where it issued a watch.

Widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible.

Officials

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. 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 strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth happened in Chile — a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.

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