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A magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook northern Chile, at 18:44 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site. The government said at least one person died in the quake.
The quake was located in the mountains 115 kilometers (71.5 miles) east northeast of the city of Iquique in north Chile, the USGS said. The epicenter of the earthquake, which struck 1,515 kilometers north of Santiago, was 111 kilometers below ground. --from Bloomberg news.
Moonbird is on a hiking vacation down that way but I think he said in a recent post he is in Peru now.
each time I hit post I rec'vd a refresh screen message, didn't realize they were all being posted
Yep, he's a metachatter. I emailed him to let him know about this thread, but communications in Chile are probably jammed right now. Or, even better - he's peacefully sleeping.
hi. thanks for the concern. pauli called me just as i arrived at my apartment last night here in la serena (to the north of santiago). i didn't feel a thing - it was much further north (they felt it in peru + bolivia, according to the radio report i'm listening to at the moment, but it was strongest in chile). so i'm ok, paulina is ok (in santiago), and i would guess signal (the other chilean on mefi) is ok, since he lives and works in santiago. as far as i know, there's currently 12 known dead, which is obviously terrible for the families involved, but a very low number for the strength of the earthquake. there was a fair amount of panic in the coastal cities in the north, with people heading to the hills, expecting a tidal wave, but it was soon clear that wouldn't happen, and things seem to have calmed down.
if you can read spanish, there's more info here. and thanks to taz for the email pointing me here! :o)
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
