Authorities in Chile have canceled the tsunami warning that was activated for the southernmost region after a significant 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit in the Drake Passage, the waterway separating South America from Antarctica.
“The preventive evacuation is finished. Everyone can return and resume their activities,” stated Juan Carlos Andrade, director of the state disaster agency for the isolated southern Magallanes region.
Previously, the country’s emergency agency SENAPRED had urged the “evacuation of the coastal area of the # Magallanes Region”.
President Gabriel Boric reiterated the call for the “evacuation of the coastline throughout the Magallanes region” via his X account.
“Residents in the Puerto Almanza area, located roughly 75 kilometers from Ushuaia on the eastern shore of the Beagle Channel, are advised to evacuate the area and seek higher, safer ground,” the Tierra del Fuego provincial government announced on its X account.
The US Geological Survey reported that the quake hit at a shallow depth of 10km, 219km from the Argentine city of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego province, and a similar distance from Puerto Williams in Chile.
It recorded the magnitude at 7.4, slightly below the 7.5 reported by Chile’s National Seismological Center.
The earthquake occurred at 9:58 AM local time (1:58 PM Irish time), with several minor aftershocks also detected.
Located at the southern extremity of South America, the Magallanes region is Chile’s second largest, though sparsely populated, and borders Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province.
The governor’s office in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, indicated that “the earthquake was primarily felt in Ushuaia, and to a lesser extent, in other towns across the province”.
Chile is one of the nations most impacted by seismic activity.
Three tectonic plates converge within its boundaries: the Nazca, South American, and Antarctic plates.
In 1960, the city of Valdivia in the south experienced the most devastating earthquake ever recorded, measuring 9.5 in magnitude and resulting in the deaths of 9,500 individuals.
In 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the central Chile coast caused a tsunami and resulted in over 520 fatalities.
