Saturday, February 27, 2010

Huge Chilean earthquake, magnitude 8.8

A huge earthquake struck offshore Chile Saturday 3:34 am local time.  The magnitude of 8.8 makes it one of the 5 or 6 largest earthquakes ever, according to the list from the NEIC:

Location Date UTC Magnitude Lat. Long. Reference
1. Chile 1960 05 22 9.5 -38.29 -73.05 Kanamori, 1977
2. Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964 03 28 9.2 61.02 -147.65 Kanamori, 1977
3. Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra 2004 12 26 9.1 3.30 95.78 Park et al., 2005
4. Kamchatka 1952 11 04 9.0 52.76 160.06 Kanamori, 1977
5. Off the Coast of Ecuador 1906 01 31 8.8 1.0 -81.5 Kanamori, 1977
6. Rat Islands, Alaska 1965 02 04 8.7 51.21 178.50 Kanamori, 1977
7. Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 2005 03 28 8.6 2.08 97.01 PDE
8. Assam - Tibet 1950 08 15 8.6 28.5 96.5 Kanamori, 1977
9. Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1957 03 09 8.6 51.56 -175.39 Johnson et al., 1994
10. Southern Sumatra, Indonesia 2007 09 12 8.5 -4.438 101.367 PDE

There is a tsunami warning issued by the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Below is the seismogram from my home institution of Franklin & Marshall College:


Click on the figure for a larger image.  The waves arrive a few minutes after 6:30, coordinated universal time (time scale on the right).

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