8.8 Magnitude Earthquake in Chile Early Today

200 miles southwest of Santiago.

Tsunami warnings generated for Chile and Peru across all Pacific islands and the Pacific rim, including most of Central and South America and as far as Australia and Antarctica.

Article says the biggest one ever recorded in Chile, a 9.5 in 1960 generated waves that killed as far away as Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan.

DrewM.: Having spent some time in Chile I just wanted to add a few thoughts.

First, Chileans are some of the nicest people I've ever met. They are friendly, kind, hard working and almost everyone I met loved America. They are also a very proud people.

Second, this is an area that has suffered from earthquakes before. Walking through Santiago you notice a strange mix of buildings in terms of styles and age. When I asked about it I was told that it was because when earthquakes, some survived and some collapsed. When they collapsed, new ones were put up giving you this odd mix of buildings.

Reminders of the power of nature, especially geological are all over the country. I went up into the Andes and you can drive off into huge side canyons. There were boulders that were the size of office buildings and dozens of them in each canyon. It was amazing.

On a political note...they are not all that far removed from the Pinochet dictatorship. They are very proud of the political and economic progress they have made and rightly so.

It's a quirky and in someway strange country but for the most part it's a beautiful and welcoming one. I pray they will be ok.

posted by Dave In Texas at 07:03 AM

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