14 DAY TRIAL // A massive, magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck off the northern coasts of Chile on Tuesday, April 1, at 8:46 pm local time (2346 GMT). The epicenter was located at a depth of 20.1 kilometers (12.5miles), some 95 kilometers (59 miles) northwest of Iquique, Chile, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports. The exact coordinates are 19.642°S by 70.817°W.
The epicenter lies just 447 kilometers (278 miles) southwest of the Bolivian capital, La Paz. The event was a megathurst earthquake that originated at the junction between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, in a location where the former subducts eastwards beneath the other. This fault lines is part of the larger, more complex tectonic system that generated the Andes mountain range.
Immediately after the event, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, the United States, released a tsunami warning for the Pacific coastlines of Chile, as well as for the American island archipelago. The anticipated waves slammed the Chilean coasts shortly afterwards, at a height of 2 meters (6.3 feet).
Fortunately, most people from the targeted areas were able to move to higher ground beforehand. The PTWC warning covers a total of 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) of coastlines, in both South and Central America, The Telegraph reports.
The earthquake was also accompanied by several landslides, flooding, and fires, Chilean authorities report. The tremor lasted for a total of 2 minutes. One unusual side-effect is that this tremor allowed nearly 300 female prisoners to escape from a jail in the northern Chilean city of Iquique.
The USGS reports that multiple aftershocks followed the main earthquake, including one of magnitude 6.2. The effects of the seismic event were felt all the way to the middle of South America. Authorities in Ecuador and Peru issued their own warnings soon after the disaster struck. Fortunately, the tremor did not produce massive property damage, and only claimed the lives of 6 people.
The area where the new epicenter was located has long been expected to trigger a large earthquake. The central and southern parts of Chile were devastated by a massive seismic event in February 2010, when a magnitude 8.8 tremor killed 500 and caused $30 billion (€22 billion) in infrastructure damage.
On Sunday, March 30, the same fault that generated the 2010 event also triggered an earthquake of magnitude 6, which was promptly followed by a series of moderate-intensity aftershock. The tremor comes on the heels of a series of other, smaller events that have occurred in this fault line over the past couple of weeks.
Chile, which lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, is one of the most geologically-active countries in the world.