Newsy: 8.8-Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Chile

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the South American nation of Chile, sparking official warnings that a tsunami could affect the entire Pacific region. 

In what the country's president immediately declared "a state of catastrophe", the earthquake collapsed bridges, smashed cars, and cut power and water lines and the death toll is quickly rising.

"Houses damaged, windows shattered, a lot of things thrown around in some of those residential areas." (MSNBC)

"... caused blackouts in part of the capitol Santiago. Buildings have been reduced to rubble and phone lines have been brought down." (Russia Today).

"Back on mainland Chile the airport in Santiago is out of action and closed to air traffic. On the streets, dazed residents huddled together amid the rubble of fallen buildings." (ITN)

A Times of India report focuses on the reach of the quake, noting, "Strong tremors were felt across the continent – from Argentina to Ecuador... As the shockwaves travelled from Chile across the continent, the whole South America was woken up by strong tremors."

Now officials warn a tsunami threatens to rock the entire Pacific--that's about one-quarter of the globe.

And with the earthquake striking as Haiti still struggles to re-build, many in the media are comparing the two earthquake-ravaged nations.

"This is a very different country. This is a much more industrialized country. And as we've just been reporting, had the largest earthquake ever reported. I believe it was 9.5 magnitude. In that case that is the biggest earthquake the world has ever seen. ... But because this is a more industrialized nation, they do have better building standards." (Al Jazeera English)

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers uses Haiti's quake to put Chile's numbers in perspective: "When you go from 7.0 to 8.0 that is literally 32 times stronger of an earthquake, not just one time stronger. That's 32 times stronger. So let's now go to 9.0. That would be anoter 32. So that's not 64. That's 32 times 32. That would be 1,000 times stronger than the Haitian earthquake if we go to 9.0. But we're not at 9.0. We're 8.8. But close enough."

For Newsy.com, I'm Christina Hartman. Multiple Sources. The Real Story.

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