Massive earthquake strikes Chile

A massive earthquake with an initial magnitude of 8.8 has struck central Chile.

The BBC  Saturday, 27 February 2010

The quake struck at 0634 GMT about 91km (56 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 317km south-west of the capital, Santiago.

Buildings in Santiago were reported to have shaken for between 10 and 30 seconds, with the loss of electricity and communications.

The US issued an initial tsunami warning for Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

That was later extended to Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.

Japan’s meteorological agency has warned of a potential tsunami across large areas of the Pacific.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said: “An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours.”

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    • Diane G on February 27, 2010 at 13:01

    Another horror. My heart goes out to them…. I hope the tsunami does not create itself and create further destruction.

    Mish, hope you are on high ground in Japan!

  1. for a totalitarian scientifically controlled world dystopian post modern society WILL BE hampered by earth changes.

    • RiaD on February 27, 2010 at 14:50

    i saw that first thing this morning.. my first thoughts were of you… are you inland a good ways? my d-i-l’s family is, so i was not worried for them.

    • TMC on February 27, 2010 at 15:01

    TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER   7

    BULLETIN

    TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER   7

    NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI

    148 AM HST SAT FEB 27 2010

    TO – CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

    SUBJECT – TSUNAMI WARNING SUPPLEMENT

    A TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII.

    AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

      ORIGIN TIME – 0834 PM HST 26 FEB 2010

      COORDINATES – 36.1 SOUTH   72.6 WEST

      LOCATION    – NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE

      MAGNITUDE   – 8.8  MOMENT

    snip

    THE ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME IN HAWAII OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS

                        1119 AM HST SAT 27 FEB 2010

    • TMC on February 27, 2010 at 16:47

    National Data Buoy Center is a refreshable map of buoy locations and tsunami wave data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    CNN has excellent coverage both on the Web and TV

  2. The earthquake was am 8.8 magnitude, it was on a Saturday morning at 3:34 am local Chilean time,  epicenter struck slightly offshore in an area that was (relatively speaking) not that highly populated,  you can click on the thumbnails on this excellent page and see that this area is very earthquake prone and they are having a lot of aftershocks

    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ear

    the depth was 35 km (21.7 miles)

    this map below shows all the world’s earthquakes in a week long time period, and it can be animated to show the little squares popping up all along the Pacific ring of fire.

    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ear

    (note, California looks “bad” but we are always having piddleshit 3 ‘s and 4’s going off here daily along the coastline faults- hundreds of them. it’s a feature ; )  better little than big   )

    There was the big 7 magnitude one off of Japan on Feb 26th and there has been also a lot of activity east of Australia,  near New Zealand and the islands of Tonga, Vanatu,    http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/listQ…  in addition to these new Chilean ones

    World earthquake information by Country/Region (has USGS links to each country’s info )

    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ear

    Click here for latest NOAA Tsunami Watches and Warnings, Worldwide

    http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/

    latest tsunami warning for Hawaii, as of 8:30 am Pacific Standard Time USA,  issuedd 5:49 am Hawaiian  Standard Time, click here

    http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/m

    estimated arrival time of tsunami wave in Hawaii is 11:19 am HST Sat feb 27, 2010  


    EVALUATION

    A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED THAT COULD CAUSE DAMAGE ALONG

    COASTLINES OF ALL ISLANDS IN THE STATE OF HAWAII. URGENT ACTION

    SHOULD BE TAKEN TO PROTECT LIVES AND PROPERTY.

    A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF LONG OCEAN WAVES. EACH INDIVIDUAL WAVE

    CREST CAN LAST 5 TO 15 MINUTES OR MORE AND EXTENSIVELY FLOOD

    COASTAL AREAS. THE DANGER CAN CONTINUE FOR MANY HOURS AFTER THE

    INITIAL WAVE AS SUBSEQUENT WAVES ARRIVE. TSUNAMI WAVE HEIGHTS

    CANNOT BE PREDICTED AND THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST.

    TSUNAMI WAVES EFFICIENTLY WRAP AROUND ISLANDS. ALL SHORES ARE AT

    RISK NO MATTER WHICH DIRECTION THEY FACE. THE TROUGH OF A TSUNAMI

    WAVE MAY TEMPORARILY EXPOSE THE SEAFLOOR BUT THE AREA WILL

    QUICKLY FLOOD AGAIN. EXTREMELY STRONG AND UNUSUAL NEARSHORE

    CURRENTS CAN ACCOMPANY A TSUNAMI. DEBRIS PICKED UP AND CARRIED

    BY A TSUNAMI AMPLIFIES ITS DESTRUCTIVE POWER. SIMULTANEOUS HIGH

    TIDES OR HIGH SURF CAN SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE TSUNAMI HAZARD.

    THE ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME IN HAWAII OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS

                        1119 AM HST SAT 27 FEB 2010

    MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.

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