A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 struck off the coast of Chile tonight, strong enough to be felt nearly 300 miles away in the Bolivian capital, and triggering a tsunami that has already started hitting the coastline.
The quake, which was centered 61 miles west-northwest of Iquique, Chile, and was 6.21 miles deep, was initially measured at 8.0, but was later upgraded, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a six-foot tsunami that hit Pisagua, Chile, at 8:04 p.m. ET. There was some damage reported on roads linking northern towns between Iquique and Alto Auspicio, but it was immediately clear how much.
A tsunami alert was initially issued for Chile, Peru and Ecuador, but was later extended to Colombia and Panama. Tsunami watches were issued for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom
Locals sit on the street following a tsunami alert after a powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit off Chile's Pacific coast, on April 1, 2014 in Antofagasta.
The shaking the quake caused in Quito, Bolivia, was the equivalent of a 4.5-magnitude tremor, authorities there said.
The quake triggered as at least eight strong aftershocks in the first few hours, including a 6.2 tremor.
In Chile, evacuation orders were issued for the cities of Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta. All cities were along a low coast and each evacuation involved a significant climb to higher land further inland, ABC News producer Helen Hughes said from Santiago, Chile.
Salvador Urrutia, the mayor of Arica, said there were minor injuries in the city but no deaths reported. Some homes were damaged, but the modern structures and taller buildings were not damaged.
He said the city was without power and had no cellphone service.
Despite the fear caused by the evacuation order, which was not limited to the coast, he said people remained calm.
Evacuations were ordered along the coast in Peru. In the seaside town of Boca del Rio, waves 2 meters above normal hit the shore, but there were no injuries or major damage, Col. Enrique Blanco, the regional police chief in Tacna, a Peruvian city of 300,000 near the Chilean border, told The Associated Press.
"The lights went out briefly, but were re-established," Blanco said.
Two waves hit initially Iquique and Pisagua, but none larger than two meters.
The first wave was not necessarily the strongest, local officials said, and people were warned not to return to the coastline until alert is lifted.
There have been numerous quakes in the same area over the past few weeks, but scientists said it was not clear whether they were a sign that a major quake was coming.
A magnitude-6.7 quake rattled the area on March 16, and more than 100,000 people were briefly evacuated from low-lying areas. No tsunami resulted from that quake, which caused little damage.
In 2010, a magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in central Chile killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes and caused widespread damage to docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded also happened in Chile, in 1960. That magnitude-9.5 tremor killed more than 5,000 people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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