Jakarta, Indonesia — A powerful earthquake hit off western Indonesia late Monday, briefly triggering a tsunami warning that sent thousands of panicked residents fleeing to high ground. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The 7.7-magnitude temblor struck at a depth of 13 miles off Sumatra island, said the U.S. Geological Survey.
At least five towns in the provinces of Bengkulu and West Sumatra were badly jolted, officials and witnesses said, as were the nearby Mentawai islands.

“Everyone was running out of their houses,” said Sofyan Alawi, a resident in the city of Padang, adding that, with loudspeakers from mosques blaring out tsunami warnings, the roads leading to surrounding hills were quickly jammed with cars and motorcycles.

“We kept looking back to see if a wave was coming,” said 28-year-old resident Ade Syahputra.

Areas closest to the epicenter of the 9:42 p.m. (10:42 a.m. EDT, 1442 GMT) quake were sparsely populated, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, said Ade Edward, a disaster management agency official.

A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit less than an hour after the original quake, and the region remained on alert for more.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire.

The city of Padang was badly shaken one year ago by a 7.6-magnitude quake that killed at least 700 people and flattened or severely damaged 180,000 buildings.

That followed the 2004 tsunami off Sumatra’s westernmost province of Aceh that was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude quake and killed 230,000 in a dozen countries, roughly half in Indonesia.

(Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta.)
[Plain Dealer]

Authorities in Chile’s second-most populous city have extended a curfew in an effort to curb the looting following Saturday’s deadly earthquake.

The lawlessness that has plagued Concepcion since the city was badly damaged by the quake prompted officials to extend a curfew from 8 p.m. Monday until noon Tuesday.

The looting continued from late Monday night into the early morning hours of Tuesday, as desperate residents seek basic supplies such as food and water. Several stores and businesses have been ransacked and burned.

Concepcion was the closest city to the center of the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 720 people and left much of the country in ruins. The death toll is expected to rise.

The international community is mobilizing relief for Chile. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Santiago briefly Tuesday, bringing emergency communications equipment.

The United Nations said Chile needs mobile bridges, field hospitals, dialysis equipment and other medical supplies, as well as food and shelter.

President Michelle Bachelet sent 10,000 soldiers to the earthquake region to restore order, and she announced that supermarkets there would distribute food free of charge. Her government also is working to deliver food, water and emergency shelters as quickly as possible to thousands of people living on the streets.

President Bachelet says the earthquake is an emergency “unparalleled in the history of Chile.” The Andean nation on the western coast of South America is in a seismically active area. It was hit 50 years ago by the strongest earthquake recorded in modern history – magnitude 9.5. The quake that struck Saturday is among the top eight strongest earthquakes ever measured.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said an emergency medical mission has been sent to Chile. He promised up to $3 million in an emergency grant for recovery efforts.

China’s state news agency says authorities in Beijing are offering $1 million in humanitarian assistance.
[Voice of America]

Three Americans Missing, Dozens Dead in Quake 64 Times Stronger Than Haiti’s

Rolling aftershocks battered Chile nearly every hour today after a earthquake rocked Chile that rocked the country early this morning.

The death toll from the quake climbed throughout the day, and by evening the national emergency office was saying at least 300 people had died in the disaster.

U.S. officials have been unable to reach at least three Americans working with the U.S. Embassy in Chile.

The quake also triggered tsunami warnings in areas as far away as the western coast of the United States, Hawaii and Japan.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said that though central Chile was devastated by the earthquake, she has not requested international assistance.

“The system is functioning,” she said. “People remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have.”

The U.S. Embassy estimates up to 1,000 American citizens are in the most affected area, but said no American casualties or injuries have been reported. Chile’s Minister of Housing said in an interview on Chilean TV that about 1.5 million houses have been damaged by the earthquake and 500,000 houses are severely damaged.

The earthquake, which hit just after 3 a.m. local time, was 500 times larger than the one that devastated Haiti last month but was much deeper, likely making the number of casualties far fewer than those in the Caribbean nation.
[ABC News]

A massive earthquake has hit the coast of Chile, killing dozens of people, flattening buildings and triggering a tsunami.

The 8.8-magnitude quake, the country’s largest in 25 years, shook the capital Santiago for a minute and half at 3:34am (6:34am GMT) today.

A tsunami warning has been extended across 53 countries, including most of Central and South America and as far as Australia, Hawaii and Antarctica.

The wave has already caused serious damage to the sparsely populated Juan Fernandez islands, off the Santiago coast, and is now travelling across the ocean at several hundred km per hour.

The death toll in Chile has reached 78 and is still rising according to President Michelle Bachelet, who has declared a “state of catastrophe” in the country.

Calling for calm from an emergency response centre, the outgoing president said: “We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks.

“Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately.”

The quake hit near the town of Maule, 200 miles southwest of Santiago, at a depth of 22 miles underground.

The epicentre was just 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river.

In Santiago buildings collapsed and phone lines and electricity were brought down, but the full extent of the damage is still being determined.

Santiago airport has been shut down and will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours after the passenger terminal suffered major damage.

Chilean television is showing images of destroyed buildings and damaged cars, with rubble-strewn streets.

Dozens of people were seen roaming through the streets, some wheeling suitcases behind them and others gathering around open fires to keep warm.

Santiago resident Simon Shalders said: “There was a lot of movement. The houses were really shaking, walls were moving backwards and forwards, and doors were swinging open.”

About 65,000 British tourists visit Chile each year, according to the country’s tourist authority.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel information for people planning to go to Chile, saying: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in contact with our embassy in Santiago in order to establish the facts on the ground.

“Communications are sporadic. We will update this advice over the next few hours.”

In the coastal city of Vina del Mar, the earthquake struck just as people were leaving a disco, Julio Alvarez told a local radio station. “It was very bad, people were screaming, some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them.”

Several big aftershocks later hit the south-central region, including ones measuring 6.9, 6.2 and 5.6.

The earthquake was caused by the floor of the Pacific being pushed below South American land mass.

This sudden jerking of the sea-floor displaced water and triggered a tsunami, which is now crossing the ocean at a speed of a jet plane.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Chile and Peru, and a less-urgent tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica.

A spokesman said: “Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated.

“It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre and could also be a threat to more distant coasts.”

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center also warned of a “potential tsunami threat to New South Wales state, Queensland state, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island”.

Any potential wave would not hit Australia until Sunday morning local time, it added.

All Pacific islands including Hawaii and the Easter Islands have also received warnings.

On the Easter Islands people are now seeking higher ground before the wave strikes.

Earthquakes are relatively common in Chile, which is part of the pacific “ring-of-fire” tectonic-plate boundary, and many buildings are built to withstand tremors.

However Dr David Rothery, of the department of earth and environmental sciences at the Open University, described a magnitude 8 quake as a “rare event” with only one a year on average.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same region on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left two million homeless.

The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the US West Coast.
[Times Online]