In the South American country of Chile an earthquake measuring 8.3 has led to mass evacuations and tsunami warnings as far afield as New Zealand and California.
Five people were killed when the quake hit at 7:54p.m. local time on Wednesday evening. Within minutes a 15ft high tsunami wave hit the chilean coast. Thetsunami warning was cancelled at 6:22a.m. local time.
A lot of people had been travelling to the coastal regions in preparation for celebrating independence day.
Videos and photos posted on social media show people walking through the streets while tsunami warnings were being broadcast.
A strong 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck off Chile’s coast on Wednesday, forcing evacuations http://t.co/K1Y4koCxYp pic.twitter.com/ybm7VRnhP1
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 17, 2015
Aftershocks have been felt as far afield as the Philippines, in total about 15 aftershocks have been detected.
6.3 6.1 6.2 7.0 Chile experiences huge aftershocks after 8.3 earthquake: http://t.co/9ifMZOOUU1 pic.twitter.com/cXkLFqhiXm
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 17, 2015
Chile is one of the most seismically active areas on earth,
