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8.2 Earthquake Off the Coast of Chile, Tsunami Triggered

Posted by Soulskill on from the be-safe dept.

An 8.2-magnitude earthquake has struck roughly 60km off the cost of Chile. Its depth was approximately 20.1km. A tsunami has been generated, and evacuations have been ordered along the coast near the strike. Tsunami warnings were also issued for Peru and Ecuador. According to the Associated Press, "Coastal residents of northern Chile evacuated calmly as waves measuring almost 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) struck ahead of a tsunami that was expected to come ashore later. ... Chile's emergency service reported some roads blocked by landslides caused by the quake, but said no injuries had been reported so far."

19 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. How can different news sources by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    get the magnitude wrong.

    7.7
    8.2
    8.0

    http://www.google.org/publical...

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/c...

    http://www.latimes.com/world/w...

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    1. Re:How can different news sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most likely those are estimates based on the data available at each location. As time moves forward the magnitud will converge.

    2. Re:How can different news sources by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

      It might also be the race to get the information out.

      I don't know if USGS is involved in earthquakes off the coast of Chile, but I know that the USGS refines it's numbers over time. So you might hear about a 5.0 which turns into a 5.2 and then down to a 5.1. But in our info-driven got-to-have-the-news-now-and-damn-the-accuracy culture, timeliness is more important than accuracy. We don't like to wait for data.

      So instead of saying "Big Earthquake in Chile", they throw the number in. The number doesn't mean squat to most people, other than "7.7? Wow--that's pretty big."

    3. Re:How can different news sources by jrumney · · Score: 4, Informative

      Initial reports of earthquakes always have differing magnitudes, based on different data sources. It is only a couple of days later when all the data is analysed together that a consistent magnitude is agreed on.

    4. Re:How can different news sources by jrumney · · Score: 4, Interesting

      USGS is involved in all major earthquake measurement - the waves travel around the world in an earthquake of this size, and often the precise magnitude is more accurately determined at a distance.

  2. Re:First! by Nimey · · Score: 2

    You should have used APK's hosts.txt.

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  3. Re:For Comparison by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

    or 10 ^ (8 - 5.1)

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  4. earthquakes here at home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Posting from Chile here. Chile is an extremely seismic country. Construction codes and techniques require and plan for buildings to resist a 9.0 earthquake (by resist it's meant that no matter the damage to the building, even if it becomes uninhabitable, it should allow all the occupants to evacuate safely) and usually anything below 7.6 is not really reported as a major earthquake. In 2010 we had a major earthquake (8.8, 11th strongest in recorded history) and all the regions that had previously experienced a major quake (1985 in Santiago,1960 in Valdivia, and so on), and thus where rebuilt using the modern construction standards, experienced very little damage due to the quake itself. Of all people that where killed in 2010, less than 1000, most of them where due to the tsunami that ensued. The southern cities however where severely damaged as many homes where quite old and built using "adobe" mud bricks.
    The northern region that was hit today had already suffered two ~7.8 earthquakes in 2005 and 2007 and most of the construction was done using modern standards. The information is slowly coming in, but so far no casualties are reported. Right now all coastal cities have been evacuated as tsunami alarms where sounded, including massive SMS alerts and emergency alerts sent directly to Android phones.

    1. Re:earthquakes here at home by alex67500 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Right now all coastal cities have been evacuated as tsunami alarms where sounded, including massive SMS alerts and emergency alerts sent directly to Android phones.

      So iPhone users can die? Sounds like Chile is way more civilised than I thought ;-)

  5. Re:Of course it was calm by mapuche · · Score: 2, Informative

    A beacon of democracy? Chile had at least 5 military internventions in the 20th century.

  6. Re:Of course it was calm by LavouraArcaica · · Score: 2, Informative

    how in the hell a flamebait like this is modded +5 Informative?

    And Chile is not a beacon of democracy: they had the worst dictatorship (and the longer) in the whole south america.
    Yes, they have a good rate of gdp/capita. But mostly because they are sitting on a giant copper mine.

  7. Re:Of course it was calm by flyingfsck · · Score: 2

    Not to mention that New Orleans should not be there any more. A new city was built a long time ago on the other side of the lake, but a few people insisted on not moving and rather getting flooded multiple times.

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  8. It's now the 21st century by dbIII · · Score: 2

    Pinochet has left the building.

  9. Re:In all seriousness... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chile is in the southern hemisphere, it's actually October 1st there.

  10. "No injuries"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the fine article: "Officials reported two deaths and several serious injuries...". It's the first paragraph in the damn article.

    The summary is at best misleading, misquoting a paragraph discussing the *peruvian* injuries (of which there are none reported). Chilean injuries and deaths have occurred. ... but this is slashdot, where outright wrong summaries are the norm.

    1. Re:"No injuries"? by TapeCutter · · Score: 2
      Speaking of the fine summary, WTF has the surf report got to do with the tsunami?

      "waves measuring almost 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) struck ahead of a tsunami that was expected to come ashore later"

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  11. Re:For Comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Once the magnitude of an earthquake has been worked up and agreed upon, it is roughly equivalent to the old Richer scale. The amplitude magnitude in Richer is a base-10 logarithm, but approximately base-31 for the energy. So the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Chile just experienced released about 20,000 more energy than the one LA last week. The source is the same as yours.

  12. Re:Of course it was calm by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nothing and neither does New Orleans, but some people are pretty clueless and feel the need to bring up there ignorant pet issues under the flimsiest of reasons.

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  13. Re:Chile worst dictatorship in South America? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    Allende was a democratic elected president, you moron.

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