15-foot waves struck portions of the coast of Chile, causing as many as a million people to flee their coastal homes, as the tsunami destroyed or damaged dozens of beachfront homes. The tremor also immediately sent widespread tsunami warnings to multiple countries.
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It had generated a 15.1-foot tsunami as of 4:47 p.m. PDT Wednesday for Coquimbo, Chile, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center.
In northern Chile, people were evacuated to higher ground as strong aftershocks followed through the night, triggering a tsunami alert for the Chilean coast.
The tsunami advisory for the state of Hawaii was canceled Thursday morning as officials reported no local problems resulting from the quake off the coast of Chile.
The quake lasted three long minutes with intensity increasing.
Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries because the Nazca tectonic plate just off the coast plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes.
The quake led more than one million to evacuate coastal areas.
A Tsunami Advisory is issued when the threat of a tsunami may produce strong currents or waves unsafe to those in or near the water.
A similar fear seized residents in Argentina, while El Salvador, in Central America, was also on the lookout for destructive waves.
The Chilean government declared a state of emergency in a central region Thursday after a magnitude-8.3 quake killed 11 people and caused widespread disruption.
Authorities said some adobe houses collapsed in the inland city of Illapel, 175 miles north of Santiago and 34 miles east of the quake’s epicenter. Though waves did wash ashore in Chile, the impact across longer distances have reportedly been slight.
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Now the weather is dry across much of Chile, including near where the natural disaster occurred, AccuWeather Meteroologist Jordan Root said.
