Strong Aftershocks Strike Chile
March 5, 2010 by xmlbot
Two strong offshore tremors jolted the coastline of southern Chile on Friday morning striking close to the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated the country a week ago.
The United States Geological Survey reported that the quakes — the latest of scores of aftershocks to rattle Chile — each occurred within 25 miles of Concepción, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area. Concepción was heavily damaged in the Saturday morning quake, which measured 8.8, and an even deadlier tsunami that followed it. According to the Geological Survey, the first tremor hit at 6:19 a.m. Friday, 25 miles northwest of Concepción, and had an estimated magnitude of 6.0. The second , stronger quake, with an estimated magnitude of 6.6, struck at 8:47 a.m., 20 miles north of the city.
There were no immediate reports of further damage or casualties on Friday.
On Friday, the country’s president-elect, Sebastián Piñera, asked President Michelle Bachelet to prepare as quickly as possible a detailed report estimating the damages caused by the earthquake, describing the successes and failures of the government’s response and outlining the work left to be done. Mr. Piñera is set to take office next week.
The White House announced Friday it plans to send a delegation led by President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, to the inauguration.
On Friday, the Chilean government again revised the quake’s death toll, a day after sharply reducing it from earlier estimates of about 800 dead. Chile said that 531 people are believed to have died, with 279 of the victims identified.
Earlier Friday, Ms. Bachelet called the drop in the death toll “first and foremost, very good news,” according to La Tercera, a Chilean newspaper, but she cautioned that the number of people who died in the earthquake could still change substantially over time. Many people are still missing, and not all of the dead have been identified.
“We have been told that entire families have disappeared,” Ms. Bachelet said, according to La Tercera. “For that reason, at best a true count remains difficult.”