Tsunami Alert After 8.2 arth Strikes Off Chile

An earthquake of 8.2 magnitude has struck off northern Chile, triggering a tsunami alert, the US Geological Survey says.
It said the quake was very shallow, striking 86km (56 miles) north-west of the mining area of Iquique.

Waves of up to 2.1m (6ft) have hit some areas in Chile, and there have been power cuts and landslides.

Chilean authorities ordered tens of thousands of people to be evacuated from coastal areas.

Chilean TV broadcast pictures of traffic jams as people tried to evacuate.

The quake struck at 20:46 local time (23:46 GMT).

Some fires were reported and a number of adobe homes destroyed in Arica.

The quake shook modern buildings in Peru and in Bolivia’s high altitude capital of La Paz – more than 470km (290 miles) from Iquique.

BBC

Posted by Editor on April 2, 2014. Filed under WORLD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry