16th, 7:54 PM(Local Time) Santiago, the capital city of Chile was hit by earthquake with 8.3 magnitude. Due to this incident the entire coastal areas of Chile and neighboring country Peru has been issued Tsunami alert. Also, Hawaii(US) has been alerted. Because the buildings of Santiago started shaking vigorously the terrified 1000's of citizens came running into the streets which resulted in big rumpus.
While the whole area is unstable with communication issues, the Chile government announced that they are not able to produce a detailed report regarding the causalities and damages. The USGS announced that the intensity of the magnitude was initially 7.9 and it went up till 8.3. According to the USGS the epicenter is located in pacific coast which is 228 km far from the North-West of Santiago and the depth of the epicenter is just about 5 km.
Meanwhile the Chile University has estimated that the epicenter is 500 km away from Santiago's west-side and the depth is 11 km. Because of the high magnitude the vibrations were felt in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, which is 1400 km away from Chile. Also, it was reported that minimum 2 aftershocks were felt with more than 6.0 magnitude a few minutes later the earthquake. The Chile government has issued an evacuation order to all the citizens of the country who live by the coastal areas because it is expected that Tsunami might hit around 11 PM due to the result of this earthquake. Because Chile is located in the Pacific rim which is also called as "Ring of Fire", there is no wonder that these kind of strong and frequent earthquakes keeps occurring in the prone zones. During 1960, more than 5000 people were swiped away as a result of 9.5 magnitude earthquake and recently in February 2010,the incident reoccurred with 8.8 magnitude.
While the whole area is unstable with communication issues, the Chile government announced that they are not able to produce a detailed report regarding the causalities and damages. The USGS announced that the intensity of the magnitude was initially 7.9 and it went up till 8.3. According to the USGS the epicenter is located in pacific coast which is 228 km far from the North-West of Santiago and the depth of the epicenter is just about 5 km.
Meanwhile the Chile University has estimated that the epicenter is 500 km away from Santiago's west-side and the depth is 11 km. Because of the high magnitude the vibrations were felt in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, which is 1400 km away from Chile. Also, it was reported that minimum 2 aftershocks were felt with more than 6.0 magnitude a few minutes later the earthquake. The Chile government has issued an evacuation order to all the citizens of the country who live by the coastal areas because it is expected that Tsunami might hit around 11 PM due to the result of this earthquake. Because Chile is located in the Pacific rim which is also called as "Ring of Fire", there is no wonder that these kind of strong and frequent earthquakes keeps occurring in the prone zones. During 1960, more than 5000 people were swiped away as a result of 9.5 magnitude earthquake and recently in February 2010,the incident reoccurred with 8.8 magnitude.
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