八卦闲人: February 2010

转载自：东方新闻网

（聖地牙哥27日訊）南美洲國家智利中部沿海，於當地時間週六凌晨3時34分（大馬時間週六下午2時34分），發生里特製8.8級大地震。截至晚間8時30分，已造成至少78人不幸罹難，遇難人數很可能會繼續上升。

智利總統巴切萊特已宣佈國家進入「災難狀態」。

此次地震震中距離智利第二大城市康塞普西翁約100公里，距離首都聖地亞哥約320公里，震源深度35公里。

至於地震規模，則是「一變再變」，美國地質勘探局（USGS）最初發佈消息指規模為里特製8.3級，隨後上修為8.5級，又一度恢復原本的8.3級，最後修正至8.8級。

房屋倒塌機場關閉

地震發生時，聖地亞哥感到強烈震動，建築物搖晃，民眾慌忙走到街上。有居民說，地震持續近40秒。阿根廷首都布宜諾斯艾利斯也感到明顯震動，高層建築物搖晃。

據智利媒體報導，地震導致當地房屋、橋樑倒塌，汽車翻倒在公路上，一些建築物出現明顯裂縫。由於電力和通訊中斷，黑暗中進行災害評估工作存在難度。

智利民航部門宣佈，聖地亞哥的國際機場已經關閉，所有航班均已取消。

巴切萊特呼籲智利人民保持平靜，並避免在黑暗中出行。

她在首都的一家應急中心說：「我們正在盡已所能應對這宗強震，我們將與大家分享所有相關信息。」

地震發生後，位於美國夏威夷的太平洋海嘯預警中心，最初向智利和鄰國秘魯發出海嘯警報，還向厄瓜多爾、哥倫比亞、巴拿馬、哥斯達黎加和南極地區發出低級別預警。稍後又將海嘯預警範圍，擴大至整個中美洲以及太平洋國家和地區。

海嘯破壞南部島嶼

該中心報告說，海平面數據顯示，智利強震已引發一次海嘯，可能產生「大範圍」破壞。
此前，該中心記錄了海嘯在智利和秘魯海岸引發的至少10次海浪，其中最高的一次為2.34公尺。
據智利媒體報導，地震引發的海嘯襲擊了該國南部胡安.費爾南德斯群島，並造成嚴重破壞。
另據報導，澳洲聯合海嘯預警中心當晚也對該國昆士蘭州、新南威爾士州等太平洋沿岸地區，陸續發佈海嘯預警。

紐西蘭民防和緊急事務管理部也發佈海嘯警報。

巴切萊特說，海嘯可能在1小時內襲擊復活節島，島上居民正在疏散中。

TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.

Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Chile in 50 years and one of the strongest ever measured anywhere. President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but that number was rising quickly.

The quake shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence. The historic center of town largely collapsed, but most of the buildings of adobe mud and straw were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake.

Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.

Collapsed roads and bridges complicated north-south travel in the narrow Andean nation. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.

Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific. Emergency officials set off shrieking alarm sirens across parts of Hawaii, which could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Police and troops in Tonga began evacuating people from low-lying coastal areas and experts warned that tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.
Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast. There were no immediate reports of major damage from the waves.

Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile but said Chile has not asked for assistance from other countries.

"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have," she said.

Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down.

Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.

Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours after the passenger terminal suffered major damage, airport director Eduardo del Canto told Chilean television. TV images showed smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.

Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister said. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.

In Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city and only 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms. A 15-story building collapsed, leaving only a few floors intact.

"I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."

Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."

Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
"But then I thought, `Oh, there's no train here.' And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."

The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.

"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.

"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.

Saturday's quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.

By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer Roberto Candia And Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer