On 2.1.11: A magnitude-6.5 EARTHQUAKE HITTING CENTRAL CHILE

 

On 2.1.11: A magnitude-6.5 EARTHQUAKE HITTING CENTRAL CHILE

 

 

Danish and Swedish text-TV: CHILE HIT BY MAGNITUDE 7.1 EARTHQUAKE - magnitude later downgraded to 6.5

 

A very powerful earthquake measured at magnitude 7.1 shook CENTRAL CHILE according to US Geological Survey.

 

The epicentre of the earthquake was at sea almost 96km (SVT: 10 miles) north-west of Temuco in a depth of 12km (SVT: 3 miles).

 

No tsumani expected according to the tsunami warning centre in Hawaii and no reports of casualties.

 

Last year's earthquake on 27.2.10 was measured at 8.8 on the Richter scale and cost 500 human lives. 500,000 houses were destroyed and there was substantial material damage.

NEWS ON 3.1.11 IN RELATION TO CHILE

 

NEWS ON 3.1.11 IN RELATION CHILE

 

 

Danish TV2 News / Swedish SVT / German ZDFtext: NO ONE INJURED IN CONNECTION WITH THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE

 

The epicentre of the quake was at sea about 70km north-west of the town of Temuca in Central Chile. The quake was initially measured at 7.1 on the Richter scale, but later downgraded to 6.5.

 

No tsunami was triggered by the quake.

 

Only some telephone lines were down in the Araucania region close to the epicentre of the quake.

 

According to the news on German ZDF, the heavy rain was forecast to continue.

 

On 27 February 2010 Chile was hit by a gigantic quake destroying 500,000 houses and killing hundreds of people (more than 500 died).

They are so amazing theres not many artists that would do that

Chile earthquake / news from CNN

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/01/02/chile.earthquake/index.html?hpt=T2

 

(CNN) -- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the central coastal area of Chile on Sunday, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Temuco, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury.

 

The quake, which stuck around 5:20 p.m. (3:20 p.m. ET), was felt as far away as Santiago, roughly 595 km (370 miles) north of where the USGS said the quake occurred. The epicenter was more than 10 miles underground, the USGS said.

 

Loreto Henriquez, manager of the Holiday Inn Express in Temuco, felt the quake for about a minute, describing it as loud and strong. She said people ran into the streets, but did not report any major damage.

 

CNN Chile similarly reported no immediate injuries or damage.

 

The temblor cut some telephone and electricity lines, according to Chile's national emergency office, which did not provide any further detail.

 

Roughly 91,000 people felt very strong shaking, according to USGS estimates.

 

Soon after the quake, a 5.0-magnitude aftershock rattled the area around 6:10 p.m. (4:10 p.m. ET), striking some 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Temuco.

 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no widespread tsunami threat exists, but did not rule out the possibility of local tsunamis close to the quake's epicenter.

 

In February, an 8.8-magnitude quake hit Chile near the nation's second largest city, Concepcion, killing hundreds. Sunday's quake struck roughly 100 miles south of Concepcion.

 

CNN's Brian Walker contributed to this report.

 

 

Later the US Geological Survey aka. USGS downgraded the earthquake to 6.5.

Article in Science News on CHILE - 31.1.11

 

http://www.care2.com/news/member/711434921/2711049

 

HIGH RISK OF BIG QUAKE IN CHILE

 

Central Chile faces a big risk of a very large earthquake close to the site of last year's devastating temblor

 

Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:18 AM ET

Content provided by Alexandra Witze, Science News

 

 

THE GIST

 

• The 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile in Feb. 2010, didn't relieve seismic stress.

 

• A new study finds that the risk of a major quake remains high in the region.

 

• The 2010 quake did not move ground where stress has been building the longest

 

 

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that pummeled Chile in February 2010 did not relieve seismic stress the way scientists thought it might have, a new study suggests.

 

Quake risk thus remains high in the region, geologist Stefano Lorito of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome and his colleagues report online Jan. 30 in Nature Geoscience. In places, risk might even be higher than it was before last year's quake.

 

The geologic stress remains because instead of the ground moving the most where stress had been building the longest, the team reports, the greatest slip occurred where a different quake had already relieved stress just eight decades earlier.

 

Scientists would like to be able to point at a fault segment that built up stress the longest and say it was primed to go next. But the new work shows that stress buildup does not automatically translate to an earthquake happening right in that area, says geophysicist Ross Stein of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who was not involved in the research. "It's a very logical approach," Stein says. "But I don't think it holds up."

 

Geologists weren't surprised when the quake happened. Off the western coast of South America, the Nazca plate of Earth's crust dives beneath the South American plate, pushing up the Andes and building up stress that gets relieved occasionally in powerful earthquakes. The biggest quake ever recorded, a magnitude-9.5 whopper, occurred along the Chilean coast in 1960. Some 300 kilometers north of that, a magnitude-8.0 quake struck in 1928.

 

Between those two ruptures -- 1960 in the south, and 1928 in the north -- lay a stretch that apparently hadn't ruptured since 1835, when Charles Darwin visited aboard the H.M.S. Beagle and witnessed a major earthquake. Researchers had thought that this "Darwin gap" would be filled the next time a big quake struck the region.

 

But it wasn't, says Lorito. His team used data on how the surface moved during the 2010 quake -- from geodetic markers and tsunami observations, among others -- to calculate which parts slipped the most.

 

The scientists found that the greatest slip occurred north of the quake's epicenter, right around where the 1928 quake struck. South of the epicenter lay a secondary zone of slip. But right in the middle, where the Darwin gap lies, was little to no movement. "The Darwin gap is still there," Lorito says.

 

Other earthquake zones, such as Sumatra in 2007, have experienced big quakes that didn't relieve pent-up geologic stress where scientists thought it was greatest. "It is not strange to see that the rupture is complex, and that some parts can break at one time and some at another time," Lorito says.

 

The new work fits with several other scenarios that scientists have developed to explain ground movement during the Chile quake. The scenarios, however, differ in their details. For example, researchers from the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam reported in Nature in September 2010 that some of the quake's slip happened fairly close to the Darwin gap.

 

The teams reach different conclusions because they use different sets of quake observations and different analytical methods, says Onno Oncken of the Potsdam team. But overall, various groups agree on the broad patterns of how the ground moved -- and where seismic risk remains high.

 

Along with the Darwin gap, another place to worry about may be a stretch between 37 degrees and 36 degrees south latitude, offshore from the city of Concepción. Lorito's team concludes that stress was transferred there during the 2010 rupture. It could be capable of unleashing another quake of magnitude 7.5 to 8, the researchers write.

 

The 2010 Chile quake killed more than 500 people by causing both shaking and a tsunami.

 

Because of the seismic risk, the Chilean coast is one of the most studied regions in the world. For the past decade, Oncken and others have studded the area with seismometers to understand the details of how a diving plate like the Nazca causes quakes. "We now have the unique opportunity to do a detailed comparison from before and after an event," says Oncken. "Whatever you look at, it's fantastic data and new observations emerging at an incredible rate."

NEWS ON 11 FEBRUARY 2011 IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS

 

NEWS ON 11 FEBRUARY 2011 IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS

 

 

A MAGNITUDE 7.0 EARTHQUAKE OFF CHILE - NO DAMAGE - NO RISK OF TSUNAMI

 

There has been a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Chile - according to US Geological Service the quake had a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale. The epicentre is 45 km north of Concepcion and at a depth of 18 km.

 

Tall buildings were shaking in the capital Santiago, but there has been no report of damage. According to the authorities there was no risk of a tsunami.

 

One year ago, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred in the same area, in the Bio-Bio region causing massive destruction and triggering a tsunami. More than 500 (around 520) died, and 200,000 were made homeless.

2 aftershocks a few hours after the quake.