A massive magnitude 8.0 earthquake on Tuesday off the coast of Chile, near the mining port of Iquique, sparked a tsunami warning for all of Latin America’s Pacific coast, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
“An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,” it said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was very shallow, only 10 kilometres below the seabed. It was centred about 86 kilometres northwest of Iquique, Chile’s main mining export port.