SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Emergency authorities on Friday withdrew a spate of tsunami warnings they briefly issued following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Drake Passage, a stretch of water between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Chile’s SHOA marine authority had briefly issued tsunami warnings after the […]
World
Tsunami warnings canceled after quake hits off tip of South America
Audio By Carbonatix
SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Emergency authorities on Friday withdrew a spate of tsunami warnings they briefly issued following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Drake Passage, a stretch of water between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Chile’s SHOA marine authority had briefly issued tsunami warnings after the quake, whose depth the United States Geological Survey estimated at 10 km (6.21 miles), but lifted these around an hour later.
Chilean authorities had warned of possible impacts for its Prat and O’Higgins military bases at the tip of Antarctica and in Cape Horn, a small municipality on an island headland located at the southernmost tip of the Tierra del Fuego.
The earthquake struck just before 5:30 p.m. local time (2030 GMT) and, in little more than an hour, authorities withdrew the tsunami alerts.
The deep waters and rough, windy seas of the Drake Passage mean tsunami waves are less likely to intensify before hitting land.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero in Santiago, Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Sarah Morland in Mexic City; Editing by Nia Williams and Diane Craft)