Chile: Strong New 6.8 Aftershock Rocks North

by mpress | November 15, 2007 at 06:00 am
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 Update: an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 has struck the unpopulated
region of Chile. A 6.2 mag came earlier and a 5.6 followed.

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SU6V7G0&show_article=1&catnum=0"]TOCOPILLA,
Chile (AP) - Strong aftershocks from a powerful earthquake hit northern
Chile on Thursday as the government erected a working military hospital
and promised hundreds of other portable dwellings for 15,000 left
homeless by the quake.

Government and army workers scrambled to distribute tons of food,
water and medicine after the 7.7 magnitude quake struck near the desert
village of Quillagua in the foothills of the Andes on Wednesday,
killing at least two people and injuring more than 150.

Major aftershocks shook the region Thursday, including one of
magnitude 6.2 and another of magnitude 6.8, the U.S. Geological Survey
said. There were no immediate reports of further damage or injuries.

The earthquake destroyed or damaged 4,000 houses and the local
hospital, blocking roads, crushing cars and knocking out power across
northern Chile, officials said.

This port city of 27,000 and the nearby mining town of Maria Elena
were the hardest hit, and presidential spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber
said both would be declared disaster areas to expedite aid delivery.

Four Cabinet ministers were in the area coordinating recovery and
aid efforts. President Michelle Bachelet also flew there Thursday
morning.

Housing Minister Patricia Poblete said many structures cannot be
saved, and firefighters and other workers began demolishing the most
severely damaged homes. Dr. Cristian Castillo told The Associated Press
"80 percent of our hospital is useless."

Two women were killed in Tocopilla, 25 miles from the epicenter,
when their houses collapsed, authorities said. Hospital director Juan
Urrutia said at least 117 people were treated there for injuries or
panic.

In tiny Quillagua, with a population of around 100, one person suffered minor injuries and 15 houses were damaged.

Electricity was restored in large areas of Tocopilla. Army trucks
were distributing water to residents as supply was still cut off in
most of the city.

In Maria Elena, 1,200 homes were damaged—or 70 percent of the city's
total, authorities said. Residents were still without running water and
electricity late Wednesday.

Lagos Weber said about 170 people were taken to hospitals across the
region, but that many of the injuries were not serious. About 10 road
workers who had been trapped near Tocopilla when a section of a tunnel
they were repairing collapsed were all rescued in good condition
Thursday.[/q]

 

Location

Depth

Region

Distances

  • Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 15:06:00 UTC
  • Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 12:06:00 PM at epicenter
22.881°S, 70.067°W
35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
  • 93 km (58 miles) NNE (20°) from Antofagasta, Chile
  • 125 km (78 miles) WSW (250°) from Calama, Chile
  • 293 km (182 miles) S (179°) from Iquique, Chile
  • 1182 km (735 miles) N (3°) from SANTIAGO, Chile

 

[q
url="http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1292962,00.html"]Authorities
in Chile have been airlifting hundreds of portable houses to areas
devastated by a powerful earthquake that killed at least two people.

Another 150 were injured in the 7.7 magnitude tremor, which was centred in Chile's Atacama desert near the village of Quillagua.

The quake was so strong that it was felt on the other side of the continent in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It damaged thousands of houses and blocked road, crushed cars and knocked out power across northern Chile.

A state of disaster was declared in several cities to allow allocation of emergency funds for help and reconstruction.

Quillagua resident Maria Ines Palete said: "It was incredible. I
thought my last day had come when I saw the mountain shaking under a
large cloud of dust."[/q]

Authorities reported at least two deaths and more than 100 injuries.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 has struck the moderately populated
region of northern Chile.  Reports of injuries are starting to come in. Earthquake was felt up to 700 mile away. Power is out in affected areas.

more soon. miamipress.net

Chile's
National Emergency Office director, Carmen Fernandez, described it as a
"major quake".

"One of the most affected zones could be Tocopilla," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said on television.

At least 1,200 houses had been destroyed in the city, leaving 4,000
residents without homes, according to Tocopilla mayor, Luis Moyano.

"Today, the people of Tocopilla are going to have to sleep in the streets," he said.

Tunnel collapse

Twenty people were also hurt in Maria Elena, a small town some 60km
south-east of Tocopilla, reported the Chilean news site La Tercera.

At least fifty people were trapped when the Galleguillos road tunnel collapsed, Navy Captain Ignacio Rojas told reporters.

In the town of Antofagasta TV pictures showed cars crushed by the concrete awning of a hotel.

 

[q
url="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aSba3d9eec8U&refer=latin_america"]Nov.
14 (Bloomberg) -- Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, was
shaken by an earthquake today in its northern desert, the U.S.
Geological Survey said. No injuries have been reported, the Chilean
government said.

The quake had a magnitude of 7.7 and hit in the region of
Antofagasta at 12:40 p.m. local time today. The tremor was recorded at
a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles), centered 170 kilometers
north-northeast of the port city of Antofagasta, the USGS said on its
Web site.

``It was a very strong quake,'' the government's spokesman, Ricardo
Lagos Weber, said in comments to state-run National Television. ``There
could be aftershocks.''

Panicked residents fled into the streets in northern Chile after the
quake, and buildings swayed in the country's capital, Santiago. In
Antofagasta, the awning of a hotel collapsed and crushed cars
underneath it, National Television showed. Energy and phone service
were cut in some areas, and some homes were damaged, Carmen Fernandez,
director of the National Emergency Office, said on National Television.

There is no chance the quake will trigger a tidal wave, Fernandez said.

Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer, still is checking with
its mines in northern Chile to ascertain whether the quake caused
damage, the company's press office in Santiago said.

Illtud Harri, a BHP Billiton Ltd. spokesman in London, said he
wasn't immediately aware of any effect on the company's operations in
Chile, which include the world's largest copper mine, Escondida. BHP
spokesmen in Chile didn't return calls and seeking comment.

A spokesman for Chilean copper mine Dona Ines de Collahuasi, which
is controlled by Xstrata Plc and Anglo American Plc, also didn't return
an e-mail seeking comment.

The South American country is one of the world's most seismically
active nations. An earthquake in Chile in 1960 was the strongest ever
recorded.[/q]

 

[q
url="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ithKoQw1XY-Qh5i5jRovey1TtVNQD8STIHF00"]SANTIAGO,
Chile (AP) — A major earthquake rocked a large area of northern Chile
on Wednesday, toppling power lines and closing roads. There were no
immediate reports of injuries from the quake, which was felt in the
capital as well as neighboring Peru and Bolivia.

The earthquake, which struck at 10:40 a.m. EST, measured magnitude
7.7 and was centered 780 miles north of Santiago, or 25 miles
east-southeast of Tocopilla, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The USGS said it occurred about 37.3 miles beneath the surface.

Presidential spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber said it was centered in
the Andean village of Quillahua, near Calama, site of the large
Chuquicamata copper mine.

Initial reports "indicate that there have been no injuries, but some damage has occurred, apparently not serious," he said.

Andrea Riveros, a spokeswoman for the Park Hotel in Calama, about 60
miles east-southeast of the epicenter, said the quake knocked out power
to the hotel.

"It was horribly strong. It was very long and there was a lot of underground noise," Riveros said.

She said the hotel was not damaged.

"I was very frightened. It was very strong," added Paola Barrie,
administrator at the Agua del Desierto Hotel, three miles from Calama.
"I've never felt one that strong."

She said the hotel felt "like a floating island" during the quake,
which downed power lines and cracked windows on nearby houses.

A reporter for Radio Cooperativa who had just landed in Antofagasta,
about 105 miles south of the epicenter, told the station she saw cracks
in the airport tarmac.[/q]

 

Major Earthquake Strikes Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - A
major earthquake rocked a large area of northern Chile on Wednesday,
and it was felt in the capital of Santiago. There were no immediate
reports of damage or injury from the region.

The quake, which struck at 10:40 a.m. EST, measured magnitude 7.7
and was centered 780 miles north of Santiago, or 25 miles
east-southeast of Tocopilla, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The USGS said it occurred 38 miles beneath the surface.

"It was horribly strong. It was very long and there was a lot of
underground noise," said Andrea Riveros, a spokeswoman for the Park
Hotel in Calama, about 60 miles east-southeast of the epicenter.

She said the quake knocked out power to the hotel, but caused no damage.

Carmen Fernandez, head of the government's Emergency Bureau, said
the quake was felt across nearly 1,300 miles, from Chile's northern
border with Peru to the capital.

 

[q
url="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311703,00.html"]SANTIAGO,
Chile — A major earthquake struck northern Chile on Wednesday.

There were no immediate reports from the region, but it was felt
strongly in the capital, 1,260 kilometers (780 miles) to the south.

The U.S. Geological Survey calculated the quake's magnitude at 7.7.
It struck at 10:40 EST (1540 GMT) and was centered about 170 kilometers
(105 miles) north of Antofagasta.

[/q]

 

Date-Time

Location

Depth

Region

Distances

Location Uncertainty

Parameters

Source

Event ID

7.7
  • Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 15:40:53 UTC
  • Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 12:40:53 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

22.189°S, 69.843°W
60 km (37.3 miles)
ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
40 km (25 miles) ESE of Tocopilla, Chile

100 km (60 miles) WNW of Calama, Chile

170 km (105 miles) NNE of Antofagasta, Chile

1245 km (780 miles) N of SANTIAGO, Chile
horizontal +/- 8.6 km (5.3 miles); depth +/- 12.3 km (7.6 miles)
Nst=192, Nph=192, Dmin=106.7 km, Rmss=1.09 sec, Gp= 76°,

M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
    USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
us2007jsat

 

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 1
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
557 AM HST WED NOV 14 2007

TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

SUBJECT - TSUNAMI ADVISORY

A TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS ISSUED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE
AT 0557 AM HST.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0541 AM HST 14 NOV 2007
COORDINATES - 22.2 SOUTH 69.9 WEST
LOCATION - NORTHERN CHILE
MAGNITUDE - 7.7 MOMENT

EVALUATION

THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED A NON-EXPANDING
REGIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING FOR A PART OF THE PACIFIC NEAR THE
EARTHQUAKE. BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO DESTRUCTIVE
TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.

HOWEVER... SOME COASTAL AREAS IN HAWAII COULD EXPERIENCE SMALL
NON-DESTRUCTIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL CURRENTS
LASTING UP TO SEVERAL HOURS. THE ESTIMATED TIME SUCH EFFECTS
MIGHT BEGIN IS

0736 PM HST WED 14 NOV 2007

MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.

recommend This comment thread is now closed
0
ryan

mpress, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.

Jordan Yerman
Jordan Yerman
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:17 on November 14th, 2007

Thanks for posting this so quickly.

Vinny
Vinny
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:36 on November 14th, 2007

mpress, Good stuff.

shmoomie
shmoomie
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:11 on November 14th, 2007

mpress, thanks for this.


 I phoned our ofice in Santiago this morning when they told me about the earthquake.  Apparently there was a lot of shaking in the capital, but no major casualties from what they had heard an hour after the quake.

0
ryan

mpress - good work.

Some more info: 

The quake, 36.7 miles (60 km) deep, was centred 106km west of the town of Calama and struck at 1240 local time (1540 GMT), the USGS said. Two tectonic plates clash along the west coast of South America, the Nazca plate and the South American plate.  Source

0
Chileno

I live in the pre-mountains, eastern Santiago.  Working late last night so I slept through it, like a baby. 

erick da chef
erick da chef
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:28 on November 15th, 2007

mpress, I like this story. It's good stuff.

0
ryan

Mpress,

Good work on this story. On a technical note, one of our contributors pointed out to me that an earthquake is not deemed 'massive' or 'major' unless it is over 7 on the richter scale. Under 7 would be deemed strong. For the sake of accuracay I think the headline should reflect that. Source

This story was created over 3 months ago, the comment thread is now closed.

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