Early this morning, a massive earthquake of 8.8 magnitude struck central Chile, causing buildings to collapsed, and setting off a tsunami warning. The quake hit about 100km (60 miles) from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, with a population of more than 200,000 people. The President of Chile, Michele Bachelet, declared a "'state of catastrophe." The quake in Chile was 1,000 times more powerful than the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that caused widespread damage in Haiti on Jan 12, killing at least 230,000. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/americas/28chile.html).
Concepcion has been hit by destructive earthquakes in the past. In 1570, a strong quake destroyed the city. The quake was accompanied by a tsunami, and aftershocks were felt for months.. In 1835, the city was left in ruins by another great quake. In 1939, 30000 were killed by earthquake in Concepcion. In 1960, an earthquake and a tsunami left many dead.
Yesterday a A 7.3 quake also struck off the coast of Southern Japan.
New Sources: (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/27/AR201002...),(http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/?hpt=T1&imw=Y),(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxV-gmg5eUc),(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFU9XHexUUE).