Major Earthquake In Chile Measuring 8.8

[Iceberg]

Though I would start a thread to discuss this, as it seems unfortunately that it will be a major event, I would be most happy if this thread could be forgot in 24 hrs time, but I don't think it will be.

A Major Earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment scale hit Chile, aftershocks reported, buildings reported destroyed, along with fatalities, bridges etc, electricity down along with phone and internet, the Earthquake was reported felt 2000kms away.

Latest Tsunami warning below

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 4

NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI

1051 PM HST FRI FEB 26 2010

TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

SUBJECT - TSUNAMI ADVISORY SUPPLEMENT

A TSUNAMI ADVISORY 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

MAGNITUDE - 8.4 RICHTER (MS)

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER

------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----

CORRAL CL 39.9S 73.4W 0739Z 0.90M / 2.9FT 16MIN

SAN FELIX CL 26.3S 80.1W 0815Z 0.53M / 1.7FT 08MIN

VALPARAISO CL 33.0S 71.6W 0708Z 1.29M / 4.2FT 20MIN

TALCAHUANO CL 36.7S 73.4W 0652Z 1.15M / 3.8FT 46MIN

LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)

LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)

TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)

AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.

IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.

VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).

PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.

EVALUATION

USGS report.

Earthquake Details

Magnitude 8.8

Date-Time Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 06:34:14 UTC

Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 03:34:14 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 35.846°S, 72.719°W

Depth 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program

Region OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE

Distances 100 km (60 miles) NNW of Chillan, Chile

105 km (65 miles) WSW of Talca, Chile

115 km (70 miles) NNE of Concepcion, Chile

325 km (200 miles) SW of SANTIAGO, Chile

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.2 km (4.5 miles); depth fixed by location program

Parameters NST=255, Nph=255, Dmin=988 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp= 36°,

M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7

Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2010tfan

[azores92]

thats a massive earthquake by anyones standards, truly hope as many lives as possible are saved

[picog]

Is the tsunami warning serious? By serious, I mean the size of the waves that may hit Pacific Islands. My geography of Chile isn't good, but it appears the earthquake centre is some distance from major cities, but of course, it could affect many smaller towns and villages, as your post infers.

[Iceberg]

Its only about 50 miles from Chile's second biggest city, most of the deaths so far have been reported near Santiago 200kms away. But thankfully there are no multi million cities or Haiti's very dense population.

[GreyCrag]

Unfortunately Im expecting amplification of the waves to be travelling along the entire Chile, Argentina, Mexican coastline by now before the south side of Hawaii gets whatever's left of the dissipated energy. 8.8 at a shallow depth is nothing to turn your nose at, I can only hope those on the coastlines got out of there quickly, though giving the quakes relative proximity to the shoreline I fear they wouldn't have had much time anyway.

[M'Lady]

BBC News report

[Iceberg]

Having a quick look and I think this is the 5th strongest earthquake in the last 100 years.

[GreyCrag]

I'd suspect This isnt a fault slip, its a fault rupture. Years of the Pacific moving SouthEast has led to this entire length of the faultline being compressed into the Argentina'n plate. The trigger would have been the Japan quake last night which has finally caused this entire section of the fault to "unzip" from just inside the Argentina coastline to 70 miles Southwest out at sea where a 6.9 has just been reported from a new rupture.

If this was a slip event the quakes would be magnitude'd in a singular area, but you can easily see its beginning to unzip on the USGS map. Individual Quakes wouldnt be aftershocks but singular quakes themselves.

[Nick L]

That is a seriously huge quake, I think it's almost certain that this will be one of those "exponential" death toll rises

[Iceberg]

Death toll quickly rising now upto 50

[gottolovethisweather]

Death toll quickly rising now upto 50

Hello peeps.

If you're following this horrible event, you can follow it all day long on CNN but it doesn't make for pleasant listening I can assure you?

A Tsunami appears to be REAL threat.

STORMBOY

[Iceberg]

These are the latest reports. Apart from the 7 footer, closest to the epicentre, it looks to be around .5 to 1m so nothing to severe IMO, I think CNN are pushing it a bit, nothing greater than 1M has been recorded in the last 2 hrs.

It's certaintly still possible for something dangerous from a Tsunami, but its looking increasingly unlikely, not sure why the Pacific tsunami centre has upped to the highest warning level for it. I can't find anything concrete to support this.

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER

------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----

IQUIQUE CL 20.2S 70.1W 0906Z 0.27M / 0.9FT 72MIN

ANTOFAGASTA CL 23.2S 70.4W 0941Z 0.49M / 1.6FT 52MIN

ARICA CL 18.5S 70.3W 1007Z 0.94M / 3.1FT 44MIN

DART LIMA 32412 18.0S 86.4W 0941Z 0.24M / 0.8FT 36MIN

CALDERA CL 27.1S 70.8W 0843Z 0.45M / 1.5FT 20MIN

TALCAHUANO CL 36.7S 73.4W 0653Z 2.34M / 7.7FT 88MIN

COQUIMBO CL 30.0S 71.3W 0852Z 1.32M / 4.3FT 30MIN

CORRAL CL 39.9S 73.4W 0739Z 0.90M / 2.9FT 16MIN

SAN FELIX CL 26.3S 80.1W 0815Z 0.53M / 1.7FT 08MIN

VALPARAISO CL 33.0S 71.6W 0708Z 1.29M / 4.2FT 20MIN

[Crepuscular Ray]

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/pacific/2010/pacific.2010.02.27.104329.txt

It's now a Pacific-wide warning.

[GreyCrag]

I'm surprised the Galapagos Islands haven't been included on that list. As its populated areas are southern facing and right on the coast in the direct-danger.

[Sunset_Twilight]

I hope there isn't a large number of deaths

The world isn't having much luck at the moment with nature.

[Nick L]

At least 78 now

[GreyCrag]

I just read this on another forum..

Just heard off a freind who is aboard a cruise ship traveling along the coast of south america that they have stopped and the ship has turned with its bow facing out to sea. they have also been instructed to put on their life preservers their very scared.....no lights on shoreline

[kold weather]

I'd suspect This isnt a fault slip, its a fault rupture. Years of the Pacific moving SouthEast has led to this entire length of the faultline being compressed into the Argentina'n plate. The trigger would have been the Japan quake last night which has finally caused this entire section of the fault to "unzip" from just inside the Argentina coastline to 70 miles Southwest out at sea where a 6.9 has just been reported from a new rupture.

Thats real interesting, so all the energy was stored, then as soon as it got shunted by the Japan earthquake it caused the whole lot to get released as a huge earthquake in Chile, amazing stuff!

Still thats a real monster, what was the boxing day 04 earthquake strength?

Sadly that death toll is going to get into the thousands I'd have thought given the sheer power of it...

[cyclonic happiness]

Isn't there a deep ocean trench right next to the chilean coast with the depth of the water damping the seriousness of a tsunami at the chilean side of the pacific?

It may be the pacific islands will get hit alot worse by any tsunami beacuse of the shallower water there?

I suppose if there was anything to come out of the horrible boxing day tsunami it would be the fact that awareness is a million times better than it was.

I bet you be hard pushed to see a single person on any beach around the pacific rim at the moment, god I hope no-one goes down to watch?

[GreyCrag]

The Boxing Day 2004 quake had a magnitude of 9.1 - 9.3 (estimates vary), but it was the second largest quake in recorded history. There will always be more quakes of this magnitude as the Pacific Plate is continuing to move Eastwards in its phase, occasionally like today vast area's of Fault will rupture in Megathrust events where the crust has been "snagged" along entire hundred mile-stretches of its length, releasing these individual quakes in one duration.

The 5.9, 6.0, 6.9 quakes following the 8.8 quake aren't "aftershocks" but individual quakes in their own right from sub-faults that are also dissipating energy in one singular shock.

[Iceberg]

I still think the Tsunami is being overplayed.

Still no wave above 1M recorded in the last 4 hrs now.

Easter Island where the president order people to move away from the coasts etc experienced a 44cm wave according the pacific tsunami centre. Which shouldn't really bother too many people.

The authorities have to play it safe but the likes of CNN/Fox etc are not really helping.

[GreyCrag]

It all depends on local variations, such islands as Diego Garcia survived the 2004 Tsunami due to their Oceanic features underwater, being built on a coral reef meant the islands acted like a boat and the wave simply didnt have time to amplify onshore and create damage, wherea's localised area's of the Maldives (particulary their Eastern Side) saw some damage but nothing as seen around Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Other combinations also include Oceanic currents, Tides, Distances travelled and even "tidal" waves can have amplification of Tsunami's. Easter Island may have had a 44cm wave, but that's not to say a 15ft surge still isn't heading for Hawaii until the danger has passed.

[Iceberg]

Hear what your saying but the Galapagos Islands only recorded a 25cm wave as well.

I just don't see anything that merits any of the warnings or media coverage, we'll know later anyways.

The death toll is still rising, but it appears (and it's still early days yet), that the total death toll, will not be as bad as it could have been.

Obviously very bad for the families effected, but it maybe it could have been worse.

[kold weather]

Some Bouys are reporting a change of 1M in deep ocean water, also there does seem to be reports of fairly big surges in some places from what I've heard, whilst others haven't had that worry.

Still needs watching IMO, that 1M change in deep water suggests there must be some sort of Tsunami event going on, its just how big it will be when it reaches shallow waters thats the question and how much its energy will have weakened.

[Scarf-Carrot-Coal]

Here in NZ ......

Residents living in low lying areas of Banks Peninsula are being prepared for evacuation. Banks Peninsula is just to the south of Christchurch. A wave of 1-3 metres is expected to hit.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/tsunami-warning-notice-your-area-3384447

I was supposed to be on a fishing trip this morning and that has just been cancelled due to the potential risk of a tsunami.