Tuesday 1 April 2014

Chile Earthquake 1 April 2014 | 8.2 Chile Earthquake 04.01.2014 | Earthquake in Chile 2014 | Tsunami Waring in Chile 2014

Chile Earthquake 1 April 2014 | 8.2 Chile Earthquake 04.01.2014 | Earthquake in Chile 2014 | Tsunami Waring in Chile 2014


A powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off northern Chile on Tuesday night, setting off a small tsunami that forced evacuations along the country's entire Pacific coast.

Officials reported two deaths and several serious injuries, but the area apparently escaped major damage as landslides blocked roads, power failed for thousands, an airport was damaged and several businesses caught fire. Major damage was reported to Highway A16 north of Iquique, a major port city of about 182,000 people at the edge of Chile’s copper mining Atacama desert region.

Hours later, tsunami warnings or watches remained in effect for the coasts of Peru and Chile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said. Shortly before midnight, 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. Although the quake is off the northern coast, cities up and down the length of the country were put on high alert, including Talcahuano and Dichato, more than 1,100 miles south, where a magnitude 8.8 earthquake killed 524 people and destroyed 220,000 homes in 2010.

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.

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