Experts in Chile Fear Catastrophe as 300 Quakes Hit in One Week

[Lady Freedom Returns]

Has anyone else heard about this?

By Alexander Smith, a freelance reporter at NBCNews.com, based in London.

Chile's northern coast has been hit by more than 300 earthquakes in the past week in what seismologists warned Tuesday could be the precursor to a long-overdue disaster.

Most of these quakes have been too small to be felt on land, but people living near the city of Iquique have experienced the rumbling of up to a dozen tremors per day.

Experts analyzing this flood of data are worried the increased seismic activity could be a sign the region is about to experience its first devastating quake in 137 years. The last event, a magnitude-8.5 quake in 1877, killed thousands of people and created a deadly tsunami that reached Hawaii and Japan.

"It is very unusual activity and we are trying to find out what is causing it," said Mario Pardo, deputy head of the seismology center at the University of Chile.

Read more @ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/experts-chile-fear-catastrophe-300-quakes-hit-one-week-n61531

[dipsydoodle]

1. a magnitude-8.5 quake in 1877

That was by all accounts a 78 foot high tsunami.

[freshwest]

2. Haven't heard of it but kicking for those in Japan and Hawaii... They have early warning systems.

Just don't want it to move all the way up... Central America has had a lof of activity the last few years... Really big stuff.

[Demo_Chris]

3. rec

[starroute]

4. I've been seeing the multiple quakes on seismic monitor sites

But I thought it was just aftershocks from a 7.0 quake last week. I didn't know they were worried about them being precursors.

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[okaawhatever]

9. Thanks for the link. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Yup

The Chilean press is all over it, as it were.

[arikara]

6. I wonder if its manmade activity.

Are they fracking, or doing something else to piss off Mother Earth in Chile?

[Generic Brad]

7. 300 quakes is not a catastrophe?

They must be expecting the 301st to be one tough mother.

[SharonAnn]

8. I was there, in Santiago, during the 8.8 earthquake. That was an experience!

Awakened by an incredible noise like a freight train running outside my bedroom, I got out of bed and staggered to the door. Couldn't figure out why I was so groggy and stumbling around because I didn't realize it was because the ground was moving!

Fortunately, there was little damage in Santiago and the house I was in was fine. Due primarily, to strictly enforced building codes in Chile. And we weren't close enough to the coast to even think about a possible tsunami.

I can certainly understand where they're worried about a devastating quake.