RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the quake hit on Saturday 21 November 2020 at 7.54 pm local time at a shallow depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface.
The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused light to moderate damage. Moderate shaking probably occurred in Constitución (pop. 37,900) located 112 km from the epicenter, and Los Navegantes (pop. 200) 114 km away.
According to a tweet posted by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, some 10 million people might have felt the shaking, including those living in the capital Santiago.
There was no immediate report of casualties or property damage so far. The Chile water department said that the quake won’t trigger tsunami.
Chile is one of the countries with the most seismic movement on the planet as its western border forms part of the Ring of Fire, a 40,000 km-long zone where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.