Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake Strikes Off Chilean Coast
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 Map of earthquake location today (May 20, 2013) near Chile.CREDIT: USGS. |
An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 6.5 struck today off the coast of Chile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The temblor’s epicenter was 367 miles (590 km) west-southwest of Puerto Quellon and 952 miles (1532 km) south-southwest of the capital, Santiago. It originated 6.2 miles (10 km) deep and struck at 4:49 a.m. (9:49 UTC), the USGS reports.
No tsunami warning was issued and the quake was not felt on land, according to the Associated Press.
Chile’s coastline is a seismic hotspot along the very active Pacific “Ring of Fire” thanks to a subduction zone where one plate of Earth’s crust dives under another. In 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake, the largest ever recorded, struck in southern Chile. It killed more than 1,600 people in South America, unleashing a tsunami that crossed the Pacific and killed 61 people in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. More recently, a violent magnitude 8.8 earthquake in February 2010 killed more than 500 people, damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings, raised the coastline, and even moved the city of Concepción 10 feet (3 meters) to the west.
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