Santiago, Chile (AP) – A major earthquake With an amplitude of 7.4 struck on Friday in the South Atlantic Ocean off Chile and Argentina on Friday, which prompted thousands of people to Chile to evacuate certain parts of the coast which is not populated for higher land due to tsunami fears.
There was no damage or loss of earthquake that struck at 8:58 a.m. local time and triggered at least a dozen aftershocks.
Due to the fears that Trembler can generate a potential tsunami, the Chilean government has issued an evacuation order for the coast of the Magellan Strait, at the southern tip of South America, and for the basics and research stations of the country on the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Chilean authorities withdrew the warning later Friday after having determined that no tsunami occurred, allowing people to return home while the officials continued to warn the public to avoid walks and beaches.
“Although the state of emergency has been demoted … It is very important to remain vigilant of official communications”, ” Chilean President Gabriel Boric Written on the social media platform X. “In these cases, it is always better to be safe than sorry.”
The US Geological Survey said that the earthquake was shallow, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) under the seabed, and it struck around 219 kilometers (173 miles) to the south of the southern city of the Ushuaia in Argentina, the remote outpost from which most of the Antarctic Cruises have made the sail.
The US supervisory agency said it expected the waves to reach 3 meters high. The Chilean government estimated that the waves would first strike base in Antarctica before reaching the southernmost naval station of Chile of Puerto Williams and, on Saturday morning, to take off the coast of the largest city of Punta in the arenas of Punta along the Strait of Magellan, the keywater connecting the Oceans of the Pacific and Atlantic.
The local news stations broadcast images of residents of Punta Arenas calmly heading towards shelters and evacuation points on higher grounds while the sirens went back in the background. Schools in the region have closed for the day.
Chile’s police forces also shared images from an officer pushing a man in a wheelchair on a Puerto Williams hill sorry.
The National Service for the Response to Chile Disasters, Senapred, reported the evacuation of some 2,000 residents before downgrading the warnings, 32 people following the procedures for the databases in Antarctica in Chile.
Boric, who is from the city of Punta Arenas, suspended his normal program on Friday and called a meeting of the emergency committee to contact the earthquake. “All state resources are available,” he said.
As one of the countries most subject to earthquakes in the world, Chile has constituted its preparation for earthquakes and tsunamis have generated over the years by tectonic plates colliding under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
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The writers of the Associated Press Isabel Debre and Debora Rey in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.
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