Chile Quake One of Strongest on Record

(Feb. 27) -- An 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile early this morning toppled buildings, cut roads, power lines and telecommunication, and set off tsunami warnings that sent people scrambling for higher ground from China to Hawaii.

Experts said the quake was one of the strongest ever measured in the world and was the most powerful temblor to hit quake-ridden Chile in half a century. Authorities believe at least 300 people were killed by the tremor.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile and described huge waves that struck populated areas of the Robinson Crusoe Islands, about 410 miles offshore, where San Juan Bautista village was swamped, killing several people. Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region, told The Associated Press several government buildings were damaged on the island.

"The village was destroyed by the waves, including the historic cemetery. I would say that 20 or 30 percent has disappeared," Pedro Forteza, a pilot who often flies to the area, told the AP.

In a televised address, Bachelet said 1.5 million people were affected by the earthquake. Officials in her administration told AP 500,000 homes were severely damaged.

President Barack Obama said that early reports to the White House suggested "hundreds of lives" have been lost in Chile and that "damage is severe." Speaking on the White House lawn, Obama said he called Bachelet to let her know the U.S. is standing by to help with "rescue and recovery efforts," but Bachelet said earlier that Chile was not seeking foreign assistance.

The Chilean government shut down airports for at least 24 hours and suspended subway service in Santiago, the capital, about 200 miles from the epicenter, while pictures from Chile showed bridges collapsed, highways severed and trucks, cars and buses flung from the streets where they were traveling when the quake hit. The government was urging Chileans to limit travel as much as possible.

"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it's like the end of the world," Reuters quoted a survivor as telling local TV in the city of Temuco.

Aerial footage relayed by CNN from Chilean television showed several, more modern areas of Santiago looking untouched, while pictures from elsewhere in the city showed rubble in the streets, walls knocked down and houses and apartment buildings partially crumbled. Witnesses told the AP that historic adobe mud-and-straw buildings in the village of Talca, closer to the epicenter, were leveled by the earthquake but that victims were able to escape from the rubble.

Other reports from the city of Concepcion, just 70 miles from the epicenter, suggested damage was far worse there.

Several hospitals had been evacuated because of quake damage, and there was no official tally of the injured, Bachelet said. "The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have," she said.

Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma told the AP at least 214 people were killed in the quake. Carmen Fernandez, head of the National Emergency Agency, told the AP later: "We think the real figure tops 300. And we believe this will continue to grow."

The Nazca tectonic plate under the eastern Pacific Ocean thrust under the South American plate at 3:34 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, tossing Chileans for 90 seconds with a force about 500 times more powerful than the earthquake that devastated Haiti last month. But at more than 21 miles beneath the surface, the quake off the Maule region of Chile was more than three times deeper than Haiti's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, potentially diminishing the effects, while significantly stronger Chilean construction codes and a more modest population density suggest Chile won't suffer as much.

The U.S.G.S. warned that "a large vigorous aftershock sequence" could be expected. Within 15 hours of the initial quake, the agency had reported 50 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or larger, including one measuring 6.9 in magnitude.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning center issued alerts for the South American Pacific coast, Central America and up the North American rim to Alaska, as well as island nations in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Scientists confirmed the tsunami reached Hawaii just after 11 a.m. local time, or 4 p.m. EST.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle told the AP no damage had been reported. The water receded, exposing reefs in Hilo Bay on the Big Island, but did not crash ashore.

An official from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said Hawaii "dodged a bullet."

Japan and Russia were the only countries remaining on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's watch list, but other countries planned to keep warnings in place as precaution, reported the AP.

The quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the other side of South America, and it shook the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires as well.

A 6.3-magnitude quake hit Argentina Saturday, killing an 8-year-old boy and injuring two others, but officials told the AP the tremor was unrelated to Chile's earthquake.

Chile has suffered 13 earthquakes magnitude-7.0 or greater in size since 1973, and in 1960 was slammed by a 9.5-magnitude quake that killed 1,655 people and was the largest ever recorded worldwide. That quake, off the southern city of Valdivia, triggered tsunamis that killed 61 people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Another major quake of 8.5 in magnitude shook Chile in 1922, also sending massive waves across the Pacific.

The U.S.G.S said today's temblor ruptured a portion of the South American tectonic zone that separated those two massive historical earthquakes.