SANTIAGO (Reuters) – A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals, and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.

TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the hardest-hit city of Concepcion, where buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Cars turned upside down lay scattered across one damaged bridge.

Residents huddled in streets full of rubble of masonry and glass from destroyed homes. Many were terrified by powerful aftershocks and desperately trying to call friends and family.

Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera said 122 people had been killed and the death toll could climb higher.

Tsunami warnings were posted around the Pacific, including the U.S. state of Hawaii, Japan and Russia.

Telephone and power lines were down in much of central Chile, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage close to the epicenter.

Chile is the world's No. 1 copper producer, and the quake halted operations at two major mines.

"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it's like the end of the world," one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged homes and forced staff to evacuate the regional hospital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 70 miles northeast of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST).

The capital Santiago, about 200 miles north of the epicenter, was also badly hit. The international airport was closed for at least 24 hours as the quake destroyed passenger walkways and shook glass out of doors and windows.

Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, suspended operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines, but reported no major damage and said it expected the mines to be up and running in the "coming hours."

Production was halted at the Los Bronces and El Soldado copper mines, owned by Anglo American Plc, but Chile's biggest copper mine, Escondida, was operating normally.

Chile produces about 34 percent of world supply of copper, which is used in electronics, cars and refrigerators.

TSUNAMI

President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave hit the Juan Fernandez islands. Radio stations reported serious damage on the archipelago, where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18th Century inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.

Bachelet, who flew over the worst-affected area, said residents were also being evacuated from coastal areas of Chile's remote Easter Island, a popular tourist destination in the Pacific famous for its towering Moai stone statues.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a Pacific-wide tsunami warning for countries in Latin America, and as far away as the U.S. state of Hawaii as well as Japan, Russia, Philippines, Indonesia and the South Pacific. French Polynesia was also put on alert.

"Chile probably got the brunt force of the tsunami already. So probably the worst has already happened in Chile," said Victor Sardina, geophysicist at the warning center.

"The tsunami was pretty big too. We reported some places around 8 feet. And it's quite possible it would be higher in other areas," he added.

An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause "tremendous damage," the USGS says. The January 12 quake that devastated Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince was measured as magnitude 7.0.

Bachelet urged people to stay calm and to remain at home to avoid road accidents. "With a quake of this size we undoubtedly can't rule out more deaths and probably injuries," she said.

FLAMES, LOOTING

Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile's largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.

Broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick were strewn across roads and several strong aftershocks rattled jittery residents in the hours after the initial quake.

In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the Chilean capital hugging each other and crying.

"My house is completely destroyed, everything fell over , it has been totally destroyed. Me and wife huddled in a corner and after hours they rescued us," said one elderly man in central Santiago.

There were blackouts in parts of Santiago. Emergency officials said buildings in the historic quarters of two southern cities had been badly damaged and local radio said three hospitals had partially collapsed.

In 1960, Chile was hit by the world's biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900. The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles off Chile's Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Saturday's quake shook buildings as far away as Argentina's Andean provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. A series of strong aftershocks rocked Chile's coastal region from Valdivia in the south to Valparaiso, about 500 miles to the north.

The United Nations and the White House said they were closely monitoring the situation in Chile and the potential threat of tsunamis in the Pacific.

A State Department official said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was being kept apprised of the situation in Chile, which she is due to visit on Tuesday on a Latin American tour.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Helen Popper, Kevin Gray and Guido Nejamkis in Buenos Aires; Editing by Kieran Murray)


Massive earthquake strikes Chile, 122 dead - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100227/ts_nm/us_quake_chile

America strikes again!

Oh not the HAARP again

4 Play:

America strikes again!

*rolls eyes* yep they created and earthquake that led to a tsunami at 2 US navel bases as well as a 7.0 at a US navel base in japan. oi vey

agathamari:

*rolls eyes*  yep they created and earthquake that led to a tsunami at 2 US navel bases as well as a 7.0 at a US navel base in japan.  oi vey

Open your eyes, don't allow Western propaganda to cloud your judgement. These people turned Wacko Jacko white and killed 2Pac, they can stage earthquakes if they like.

Not to mention they invented the solar system and time itself.

4 Play:

Open your eyes, don't allow Western propaganda to cloud your judgement. These people turned Wacko Jacko white and killed 2Pac, they can stage earthquakes if they like.

wow!  ignorance never ceases to amaze me.  mj had vitiligo, 2pac was killed by his retarted a$$ rivalry any other half baked ideas you want to throw out?

God y. u said u wil destroy d world wit fire y earthquake

agathamari:

wow!  ignorance never ceases to amaze me.  mj had vitiligo, 2pac was killed by his retarted a$$ rivalry any other half baked ideas you want to throw out?

i'm sorry but you are the ignorant one here, america has haarp that controls weather and can also project it to send earthquake and disaster to wherever they want, its part of the new world order, america is not our friend and they have use obama to cover themselves. before haiti quake why did hilary went and set up a charity camp 3 weeks before the strike, they basically wants to destroy powerful black nations, enslave them again and control wealth and resources, we'll all be using dollars and there will only be one country on earth. (altho the guy im defending here has vague info about MJ and 2pacs death but still american leaders are evil and wants to control the world) when they were questioned they said they want to eradicate poverty so we'll all be rich, but they have to sieze everything and have one government

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29

4 Play:

Open your eyes, don't allow Western propaganda to cloud your judgement. These people turned Wacko Jacko white and killed 2Pac, they can stage earthquakes if they like.

yeah them people are enemy of progress they've hated us since the beginning, HIV aids din't come from african hunters boning monkey, monkies dont have no fricking aids or else people wont keep them, the virus was developed by americans, got them infected and hoping the the black race wont last a decade but its causing problems today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_origins_opposed_to_scientific_consensus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29

this new world order by illuminatti US gorvenment are really mean but they are going to fail, btw all them hillary vs obama vs mcain was all fake and planned, they are friends in their illuminatti cult, in hillarys party were all the suitable candidate female? in mcains party were all the candidate old and on wheel chair? so people said ok let the black guy win but its to cover their evil act .

sorry 4 da essay but when my tutor told me about the new world order, it got me angry

^its a conspiracy

i now get the reason why they want to destroy america with bomb, , if this is true men i go bomb america myself.

I have always wonder why I don't like that country deep inside me, now I am beginning to see the reason!

platinumnk:

^its a conspiracy

yes its a conspiracy they tried to hide but their secret is out, wikipedia is not wrong and if they are not sure they wont publish without proof even if they are tempted to do so, my tutor is even american but lives here

whiteroses:

yes its a conspiracy they tried to hide but their secret is out, wikipedia is not wrong and if they are not sure they wont publish without proof even if they are tempted to do so, my tutor is even american but lives here

tutor? explain futher. .
and I dont know about 9/11, if they really wanted to America damage, my town is the only place in the United States with Nuclear Plants/Chemical Plants.
Run a Plane there, not a thousand down, you would easily talk millions.
So Whats the conspiracy? Wikpedia is a user based site like NL.

platinumnk:

tutor? explain futher.  .
and I dont know about 9/11, if they really wanted to America damage, my town is the only place in the United States with Nuclear Plants/Chemical Plants.
Run a Plane there, not a thousand down, you would easily talk millions.
So Whats the conspiracy? Wikpedia is a user based site like NL.

sorry but you are gonna have to do your own research if you want some lights, im not ur tutor i'm just saying what i know. yes you are right wikepidia is like NAIRALAND indeed because seun pays michelin89 and other admins $15,000 a week 
hope this helps:
http://google.com/

Where is Elrazur? He should show up here abeg. Someone is daring to speak ill of America.

Death toll over 700
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake

whiteroses:

sorry but you are gonna have to do your own research if you want some lights, im not your tutor i'm just saying what i know. yes you are right wikepidia is like NAIRALAND indeed because seun pays michelin89 and other admins $15,000 a week  
hope this helps:
http://google.com/

but if you have "knowledge" you should be able to share it.  
NL does not carry the same amount of users as Wiki.
Its known they get paid.

@whiterose, tudor, shoot2kill, pc or whoever you are today.  please explaine how in your earlier post haiti (the poorest nation in the western hemisphere) is now a powerful black nation?  as to your other conspiracy: how when there is documented dna markers unique to each race, why on earth wouldnt the us have taken advantage of this when they supposidly created HIV, thus preventing whites from getting it?  

let me guess your next "conspiracy" is it the CIA let hitler escape to argentina at the end of WWII (so the russians couldnt take credit for killing him of course), then instead of going to his secret naval base in antartica he fathered a child with eva who later fled to chile where he/she and the surviving romonov child and thier army of martians plan to take over the world and the us had to create said earthquake to prevent it?  or is it godzilla is back and they had to create the earthquake in japan to kill it and when that didnt work they tried recreating the 1960 tsunami?

*shakes head*

Cyberfreak:

Where is Elrazur? He should show up here abeg. Someone is daring to speak ill of America.

in my bedroom.

Wondering what's going on.

If it comes here, we're done for.

We're barely above sea level.

agathamari:

@whiterose, tudor, shoot2kill, pc or whoever you are today.  please explaine how in your earlier post haiti (the poorest nation in the western hemisphere) is now a powerful black nation?  as to your other conspiracy: how when there is documented dna markers unique to each race, why on earth wouldnt the us have taken advantage of this when they supposidly created HIV, thus preventing whites from getting it?  

let me guess your next "conspiracy" is it the CIA let hitler escape to argentina at the end of WWII (so the germans couldnt take credit for killing him of course), then instead of going to his secret naval base in antartica he fathered a child with eva who later fled to chile where he/she and the surviving romonov child and thier army of martians plan to take over the world and the us had to create said earthquake to prevent it?  or is it godzilla is back and they had to create the earthquake in japan to kill it and when that didnt work they tried recreating the 1960 tsunami?
*shakes head*

**dies**

FL Gators:

Wondering what's going on.

If it comes here, we're done for.

We're barely above sea level.

Funny thing, my sister said we were next.

@ agatha of course haiti is a powerful black nation its a western country hence powerful than any third world country so even tho they are weak, they are strong compared to others. why are you always trying to proove a point  if i say oh red lips youll have something to say, sheesh!
some people are slaves for life and anything white people does is the best in their eyes 

platinumnk:

but if you have "knowledge" you should be able to share it.  
NL does not carry the same amount of users as Wiki.
Its known they get paid.

true but you'll have to wake up and smell the coffee ask people about the new world order or read about it

whiteroses:

@ agatha of course haiti is a powerful black nation its a western country hence powerful than any third world country so even tho they are weak, they are strong compared to others. why are you always trying to proove a point if i say oh red lips youll have something to say, sheesh!
some people are slaves for life and anything white people does is the best in their eyes
true but you'll have to wake up and smell the coffee ask people about the new world order or read about it

Ive heard of it yes, but I really do want to hear from you. If you believe it, then you should be able to educate me.
I done here also with my beliefs here. I want to hear from you.

whiteroses:

@ agatha of course haiti is a powerful black nation its a western country hence powerful than any third world country so even hey are weak, they are strong compared to others. why are you always trying to proove a point   if i say oh red lips youll have something to say, sheesh!
some people are slaves for life and anything white people does is the best in their eyes  :Ptrue but you'll have to wake up and smell the coffee ask people about the new world order or read about it

are you on crack?  "the term "western" countries started with the western roman empire, not western hemisphere (europe isnt even on the western hemisphere).  australia and new zealand for crying out loud are "western" countries and many people include japan, singapor, s korea and taiwan as "western" countries.  haiti is classified as a "third world country".  i hate to tell you but nigeria has more clout then haiti.  if they wanted a "powerful black nation" as you put it, why not go after jamaica if they wanted one close, why not any of the african countries?  please what ever you are smoking, please share with the rest of the group.  we might as well all be high together.

platinumnk:

Ive heard of it yes, but I really do want to hear from you. If you believe it, then you should be able to educate me.
I done here also with my beliefs here. I want to hear from you.  

they want the world to be one, so no more president yaradua says no gay marriage and another says theres gay marraige, only one currency will be used in the world, all the wealth and resources of the world will be one, so that one world country (might be named america) has oil coffee, wool everything and no more poverty but its not good because they are not chritians they are illuminatti and might ask people to follow freemasonry and they'll start stuff like  tattooing our credit card pin numbers on our arms and controlling us like God, and also bad because they will do this by force like destroying people's counrty to rule over them. whoever watch big brother uk celebrity, thats why that stephen baldwin who was a deep christian always talk about hating obama and their US government

agathamari:

are you on crack?  "the term "western" countries started with the western roman empire, not western hemisphere.  australia and new zealand for crying out loud are "western" countries and many people include japan, singapor, s korea and taiwan as "western" countries.  haiti is classified as a "third world country".  i hate to tell you but nigeria has more clout then haiti.  if they wanted a "powerful black nation" as you put it, why not go after jamaica if they wanted one close, why not any of the african countries?  please what ever you are smoking, please share with the rest of the group.  we might as well all be high together.

whatever i'm on crack yeah

agatha pls stop quoting me tho you are making me cringe its disgusting

whiteroses:

they want the world to be one, so no more president yaradua says no gay marriage and another says theres gay marraige, only one currency will be used in the world, all the wealth and resources of the world will be one, so that one world country (might be named america) has oil coffee, wool everything and no more poverty but its not good because they are not chritians they are illuminatti and might ask people to follow freemasonry and they'll start stuff like  tattooing our credit card pin numbers on our arms and controlling us like God, and also bad because they will do this by force like destroying people's counrty to rule over them. whoever watch big brother uk celebrity, thats why that stephen baldwin who was a deep christian always talk about hating obama and their US government

Well Im openminded, it has a hint of truth, but Im not sure its that complex.
From direct sources, The plan is to have 3 reigning banks in the US and liquify the rest, thats only what I know now, but to have one central currency, thats kinda stiff.

^^ thats what i thought too but oh well they can do whatever idk anymore

wow!  ignorance never ceases to amaze me.  mj had vitiligo, 2pac was killed by his retarted a$$ rivalry any other half baked ideas you want to throw out?

Dont you see sarcasm even if it hits you on the face?

CIA was responsible for war in Darfur, Okija shrine, Yar Aduas illness and Agbero in Lagos