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Massive 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Chile; Tsunami Warnings In Effect Throughout Region
Aired February 27, 2010 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHELLE BACHELET, CHILEAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It basically means that we are releasing help, emergency help, to these areas. Where there are any kind of bureaucratic tie ups, we're just giving out help to these areas quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There you have it, the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, giving you the information there. Covering this magnitude 8.8 earthquake of the coast of Chile.
I'm meteorologist Ivan Cabrera in the CNN International Weather Center. We're continuing to monitor all of the situation coming out of Chile. We have two concerns here. The earthquake has happened. The destruction has already occurred. Search and rescue are now going to take over and certainly get that going. That's going to likely continue for days on end, with magnitude 8.8.
My concern here is the tsunami, which is an imminent threat that continues. This is a secondary threat that we're going to continue to see. I don't like the data that is coming out of the Tsunami Warning Center here, because we're talking about some significant wave heights there.
Brandon, go ahead and zoom in to the city there at Fallecidos, in Chile, reporting -- this is buoy data -- waves of 2.3 meters. That's about seven feet. To put that in perspective, that may not sound like a lot, but if you remember last year when we had the Samoan earthquake and the eventual tsunami out of that earthquake, the wave heights there were 1.5. So we're talking here almost twice the height. As you can imagine, the potential destruction here across the coast.
Look at the shallow, the depth -- talk about that wave coming out of the epicenter there, and you see the vulnerable coastline there. Some of these inlets there are just going to be conducive to some massive destruction here. I don't know how populated this area is. But anyone certainly living here had no warning, because these waves travel at 800 kilometers per hour, 500 miles per hour, right? When you're on an airplane, that's how you're going. That's how fast these waves arrive.
So there really is no time unless you live hours away from the epicenter, where we can give you warning. But areas like this in Chile, at Fallecidos, had basically no warning. The tsunami there arriving within minutes of the earthquake, because of the velocity of that wave. And you have the destruction from the 8.8 magnitude, then you have, on top of that, the tsunami coming in.
Now remember, not all earthquakes generate tsunamis. We have different kind of plate boundaries that meet around the world. We talk about the Haiti earthquake, the reason a significant tsunami wasn't generated out of that -- there was a local tsunami, but nothing that propagated outward -- is because those were plates that were essentially parallel, what we call a strike/slip fault, right? So there is no displacement -- there is no upward displacement of water.
What we have here is a convergent plate. We have essentially the Nazca Plate coming in from the west, and the South American plate coming in from the east. And the Nazca plate is subducting under that South American plate. When you talk about an earthquake, that rupture causes that displacement of the water. It essentially -- if you take your hands in the bathtub, and you push them up, that water is going to be coming up.
That displacement is going to be more significant as the magnitude increases. So when you're talking about a 4.0 earthquake in the same region, that's not going to cause the severity that an 8.8 can cause, as far as tsunami, because the displacement isn't as great. So the correlation continues to increase with that.
So the tsunami warning continues for the entire coast of Chile. The entire coast of Peru, as well, is included in that tsunami warning here. Again, we talk about not only warnings, but the watches have been in effect. We continue to extend. We're getting new information out as to the watches.
Because of the data coming out of the buoy, because we already have the confirmation that there have been significant wave heights reported in these coastal towns, the threat becomes more imminent and so we expand the watches. Columbia, Antarctica, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua. We have Honduras included, El Salvador, Guatemala, and now French Polynesia, as well, being included.
They are monitoring -- the Pacific Warning Center is monitoring the event here, so that if an advisory -- an advisory has already been issued for Hawaii. They may upgrade that to a watch or warning.
Of course, the further away from the epicenter you get, the more time you have before a destructive tsunami arrives. We understand, certainly, that one was generated by this earthquake coming in the middle of the night, an 8.8.
We talk about the earthquake itself, and not the tsunami -- that in itself -- think of Haiti at 7.0. Now you're talking about an 8.8. Again, that is not 1.8 higher magnitude here. We talk about each magnitude, Natalie, being about 32 times greater. So we're almost at 9.0. That's almost 62 times greater, as far as the energy displacement in that rupture there, than we had in Haiti. So just incredible amounts of damage, certainly, are going to be coming out of this event. NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Certainly a lot of the people who are Twittering and the Facebook, people are thinking of Haiti, since it just happened, Ivan. But certainly Chile a much different situation than Haiti, when you think of the standards that they have for construction and buildings. But, as you were saying earlier, with 8.8, perhaps even the strongest couldn't -- not all could withstand that.
CABRERA: Absolutely. An 8.8 in, let's say, San Francisco -- we continue that ring of fire along the Pacific. An 8.8 in San Francisco would be devastating. And those buildings are build -- are engineered to sustain and withstand earthquakes. But even -- even those buildings would have some kind of damage just because of the magnitude. And buildings that are not engineered to sustain earthquakes are going to be completely devastated by that kind of displacement.
Again, we're talking about the power of a nuclear explosion here. That's how much energy is released from an 8.8. It's certainly significant, and it doesn't happen every year. The average is about .2 to .3 currents each year. So you can go years without getting something like this.
ALLEN: All right, everyone anticipating the day light hours there, probably most likely in Conception. Thank you very much.
Ivan Rafael Romo is with me, our senior Latin American affairs editor. That's the area that we'll probably hear the most from as they get in there and see what's occurred.
IVAN RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Natalie, one of the big concerns right now is that we were speaking with the US Geological Survey just a few minutes ago and they were telling us that the possibility for aftershocks is very great. I remember being in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti a week after the big earthquake, and one of the aftershocks was knocking down walls one week after the occurrence.
So we hope that this will not be the case in Chile. But when you have a situation like that, you definitely have to talk about that possibility.
The good news is that President Bachelet has already said they are mobilizing. She had a meeting with some of the cabinet members that are in charge of security, national security. So that's the good news. They already dispatched three teams going to different areas of the country to assess the situation.
One other thing that is very concerning when it comes to communications is that the main bridge that connects Chile north and south is apparently completely out. There is no way of crossing that bridge. That really creates all kinds of problems for people -- when you about evacuations or the possibility of mobilizing help to the areas that need it.
So many issues to think about. And we were talking about this before, that we're not going to really know the extent of the damage until we see some sun light. So very difficult to assess and to know the extent of the damage at this hour, Natalie.
ALLEN: But mentioning that bridge, that is certainly an indicator of what Chile could face. If you've got the major bridge connecting the north and southern part of the country that has been impacted, and certainly constructed up to the best standards for withstanding a strong earthquake, then there's going to be some more -- much more damage as we press on here and get information.
You mentioned the US Geological Survey, the geophysicist we spoke with. A moderate quake, according to the US Geological Survey, is one that measures between 5.0 and 5.9. A strong earthquake is between 6.0 and 6.9. An earthquake between 7.0 and 7.9 is considered major. An 8.0 and above, which is what we're looking at here in Chile, is considered a great earthquake, about as high as you can go.
Again, we're covering the story on many different fronts. Our Errol Barnett is in the news room for us. He is monitoring social media for us, what people are saying about this, and any people we might be hearing there from Chile. Errol?
ERROL BARNETT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Natalie, we're tracking everything from Facebook, CNN i-Reports. This is the top topic online right now. Already, we're seeing support groups spring up on Facebook.
Now let me give you a quick snapshot of some of these urgent messages. This a Twitter account for former "American Idol" contestant Elliot Yamin. He was performing on the coast of Chile, 140 kilometers west of Santiago, at a resort, and since the quake has been Tweeting about its aftermath. He's now telling fan that he's safe. But he's adding here that there's been no tsunami sirens and that the army is actually advising them to stay put.
Many of you also asking for information about loved ones. I think if you take a look at this Tweet, we have a message from Jasmine, who writes, it hit many homes in Santiago. She hasn't been able to reach her friend Ellie yet. But all phone lines are down.
Another message from Maladevia (ph) is she's worried about her uncle who is in Santiago. They're trying to get ahold of them, but they can't get through because some of the communication lines are down as well. We've experienced that as we've tried to reach out to iReporters. A lot of other message, really people trying to get in contact with relatives in Chile, but being unable to.
Another Tweet we got from someone in Hollywood, in Los Angeles, LA native, saying they just got off the phone with their family in Chile, everybody is safe, thank goodness. So some people are able to get through and find out that their friends and family are, in fact, OK.
Just want to read a few more messages we're seeing online. A woman by the name of Trudy Puller (ph), she has a common sentiment, saying that their prayers and thoughts go to Chile. She says the world seems to falling apart.
Another message that we've seen from Omkardosh (ph), saying our hearts and prayers go the people in Chile, be strong.
So everyone really still in this assessment phase, trying to get in contact with friends and relatives, using social media to pass every bit of information they can. Earlier on Twitter, I saw people sending out links to live news streams from the country, just so they could see what's taking place.
But they see what you're seeing now. It's still dark there. Not a lot of day light. It won't be until morning comes to the country that we can assess the size and scope of the damage. So people are really relying on CNN and social media to stay up to date, and to try and contact relatives as well. So we're going to continue to track and scour these sites.
And viewers can, of course, go to CNNIReport.com with any pictures or video of eye witness accounts. Natalie?
ALLEN: Errol, thanks so much. We mentioned a short while ago, I spoke with someone with the US Geological Survey. He said the people of Chile can expect aftershocks for weeks. They've apparently already experienced two, registering 6.2 and 6.9.
Also, as we mentioned, Chile was the scene of the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on Earth back in 1960. A tsunami affected areas as far away as Hawaii.
Ivan Cabrera is in the weather center and he joins us now. You were saying that the people of Hawaii right now should be on alert and pay attention to what could be occurring.
CABRERA: Absolutely they should be on alert, because, you know, I don't like the trend that we're seeing here. We obviously have had confirmation now of a tsunami being generated. The wave heights are significant and are worse than the Samoan tsunami that we had last year, and you know the devastation that caused. So it's just not going well here, as far as the trend.
We've added another country as far as the warning. Remember, the watch and the warning, the difference is the arrival time of the potential destructive tsunami. So we had Chile. We had Peru. Now we have added Ecuador. That has now gone from a watch to a warning, which means conditions are imminent for an arrival of a destructive tsunami.
Chile, Peru and Ecuador are now under the warning. I'll go over the watches as well: Colombia, Antarctica, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Polynesia. All of those regions there -- all of those countries are essentially under a tsunami watch until further notice. And we are monitoring conditions in Hawaii for a possible watch there. They are still just under an adviser there.
Again, we've been looking at some of the wave heights here in Talcahuano, which is the highest that I've seen here. Looking at some significant waves at 2.3 meters now, at seven feet. That is almost twice as high, as far as the amplitude, as that Samoan earthquake, just to give you some reference from last year.
That is the tsunami part of the story. The earthquake part of the story is still on-going, because we have continuous aftershocks. I want to see if we can take this full, so we can get a little bit closer here and show you some of the numbers. Brandon, if you're back there, go ahead and click in on some of these aftershocks because they have been significant.
This is our epicenter right this. This is where the 8.8 occurred. And these are our aftershocks. We've begun to see them popping up. Look at this one, 6.9, that's the greatest one that we've seen as far as magnitude. But very close to the epicenter is a 6.0. A 6.0 earthquake, in itself, is significant. We call it aftershock because it comes after the initial main quake. But it's an earthquake nonetheless, and that is going to continue to occur here.
Remember, Haiti had dozens upon dozens of aftershocks. So within the hours, days and weeks, even, after the main earthquake at 8.8. So we're going to continue to see these. The stronger the earthquake, the more aftershocks you get. That's usually a correlation we see. The stronger the aftershocks -- 6.9 is significant stuff, and so is a 6.0.
You imagine folks in the middle of this, again, feeling the earth shaking under them again, when they're already aware of what is happening, certainly. And not only the panic that that ensues, but the damage -- the additional damage that is going to cause. A 6.9 is going to -- can take down an entire building, certainly, a poorly constructed one, certainly. But even if a building didn't completely collapse with the main quake at 8.8, an additional tremor of 6.0, 6.9, 5.0, that is just going to continue to exacerbate the situation here. That is what we usually see when we talk about these 8.8s.
The difference here, Natalie -- the main difference -- we have, obviously, the magnitude difference, but this is a convergent plate earthquake here, where we have the two boundaries colliding. That's the tectonic situation -- the tectonic plates there that we have. The Nazca plate and the South American plate -- the Nazca plate subducting underneath.
So the difference here with Haiti is that Haiti had strike/slip, so we're going this way, right. Not here. Here we're going -- we converge. Just like we talk about meteorology, we talk about thunderstorms and you get air masses colliding, they don't go down. They have to go up. The same is true with the earthquake here. When you have those convergent plates, you get the displacement, not of air, obviously, but of water, and that is what causes the tsunami, that we have now confirmed it has generated.
It has been -- I can tell you now, Natalie, it has been significant. This is going to be, on top of the earthquake, the secondary, and as tragic a story here, with some of these wave heights that I'm looking at in and around Chile. ALLEN: I know every time you have a new paper in your hand, we will come to you, Ivan. It just seems like the news gets more grim. Thank you so much for all the information you're bringing to us.
Earlier, I talked with Rolando Santos. He's the president of CNN Chile. Now we have him live with us. He has just driven to the CNN news room there in Santiago. Rolando, how are things looking?
ROLANDO SANTOS, CNN CHILE PRESIDENT: Well, actually, it's just after 7:15 local time. So first light. You're really beginning to get an idea of the damage. Depending on the system you use, it's at least an 8.3 to 8.6, depending on which system you're using. You can see now a lot of collapsed buildings, a lot of facade. Lots of people are on the streets of Santiago, to be out of the buildings because of the aftershocks.
I lost count at 25 aftershocks.
ALLEN: Oh my.
SANTOS: The initial hit was at 3:34 this morning. I got tell you, one minute I'm in bed. The next minute, I'm on the floor and everything is coming off the walls. I'm a big man, about 120 kilos. OK? So think about that for a second. As I left my apartment to get to the office, there was not a thing on the walls or on a shelf, in the kitchen or anywhere else, that was still on the shelves.
As I've told you earlier, I've been through quite a few earthquakes, both as a reporter and living in California and other places. No question about the severity of this. I was on the floor trying to get up and/or trying to dodge the lamp and the telephone that was falling off the table and things off the walls for a good 45 seconds.
So I think there's a good piece of this, in that psychologically, this country is used to earthquakes. So from that perspective, there isn't a sense of panic. When I say good, you have to take that term in relative terms. This country is used to earthquakes, not this severe. It's been at least 100 years since they've had one this severe in this country.
But people don't tend to panic like they do in other places that aren't used to it. People are outside there homes. There's a general sense of waiting to see when they can go back, looking at the damage.
We've got reports, as I told you, of 20 people dead. I don't have any reports of people who are trapped in buildings. But we do have some collapsed buildings.
Now, in terms of the situation between the north and southern section, this was located about 100 kilometers north of Concepcion. Concepcion is to the south of Santiago. That area, right now, is still pretty much incommunicado by telephone and by cell phones. We don't have anymore reports out of that particular area.
There is a main bridge that connects the north and the south. And at the moment -- the bridge is located near the town of Talco. Talco is T-A-L-C-O, for those of you using maps. That bridge is inoperable right now. Right now, you can't get from here down there.
We also know that all flights coming into Santiago have either been diverted or have been sent back to their port of origin. We have some of our reporters who are coming back from vacation, because in this country, this is the end of the summer season. So everyone's coming back. We've had several of our reporters call in from Lima, who actually said they were in mid-flight and got turned back around.
ALLEN: Oh, how interesting.
SANTOS: I'm trying to confirm now whether the Santiago airport is back and open. It was shut down for a while. So that pretty much is the situation right now.
Again, if you look at the positives, this is a country that is really resilient. They understand the situation. There's no sense of panic that any of our reporting crews throughout the city or the rest of the region have picked up. I think everyone's trying to assess the situation and decide what the next steps are.
ALLEN: Rolando, thank you. Thanks for the new information about airports and what you know about roads and such. We were saying -- I'm here with Rafael Romo -- that if the biggest bridge that connects the country has been damaged, there's no telling what the extent of the damage. Are you still there, Rolando? Could you tell us about what the --
He's not with us right now. He's gone to do some more work for us. So we'll continue to talk here. Rafael Romo is with us. And I was going to ask him about the state of the news room there at CNN. But I think it was enough just hearing Rolando say that he's a large guy. We all know Rolando. This earthquake knocked him out of bed, knocked everything off the shelves in his home.
Rafael, yes, the people of Chile used to this, but may not be used to one the size they just experienced.
ROMO: Exactly. I think the main concern right now should be those aftershocks, because we also heard reports of what happened to historic buildings in downtown Santiago, in the historic part of the city. Those buildings have been there for hundreds of years, 400 years. They have withstood numbers of earthquakes, especially when you think about the big one in 1960, 9.5 magnitude. They were still standing after that. We're hearing that those building have collapsed.
Now, that makes you wonder what might have happened to other buildings that might not have been built in such a fashion. What's going to happen if we continue to have the aftershocks?
When we were in Haiti, it was not the original earthquake that brought down walls and buildings. It was some of the strongest aftershocks that happened a week later, that happened three days later. All those buildings that were weakened by the original earthquake, once you had a very strong aftershock, then the walls and the buildings came tumbling down. We're hoping this will not be the situation there.
Also, it's going to be a huge effort that the Chilean authorities are going to have to go through before they can restore communications throughout the entire country. We're also hearing that cities like Mendoza, for example, across the Andes, in Argentina -- the communications are down in some parts of the city as well. And Rolando Santos was telling us that as he was driving from his home to the news room in Santiago, a large portion of the city was completely dark. So how long is it going to take, when you consider that many roads have been damaged, when he was also telling us that the main bridge that connects the northern and southern parts of Chile is also down.
So a lot of issues to consider. This is by no means a center with low population density. You have many, many people living there, 670,000 people in the city of Concepcion alone. That's a large number of people to take care of.
ALLEN: Right, and earlier the president of Chile said six confirmed deaths, but those are very, very preliminary numbers. Hopefully, the casualties will be low. But these are things that we will continue to find out.
ROMO: I think I just heard an update on local media in Chile. They are now saying 16. Again, it's very preliminary information. That's what the local media in Chile are talking about right now. It's going to take hours, if not days, before we know exactly how many victims this earthquake has left.
ALLEN: It's about 7:25 in the morning there in Chile, first light now. We'll shed light on exactly what they're facing, as they pull someone who is -- they're taking into the hospital now, from this file footage we've been getting throughout the morning.
We mentioned the bigger quake that hit 50 years ago. The 9.5 magnitude back then occurred on May 22nd, 1960. This is the most powerful earthquake -- it was -- ever recorded anywhere on earth, and it happened in the area where we're talking now. It devastated the south central coastal city of Valdivia -- thank you, Rafael -- Chile. The quake left more than 1,600 people dead in that city many, many years ago. It also sent a tsunami across the Pacific Ocean, which, as I mentioned earlier, affected Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan.
We know that this earthquake in the middle of the night has generated a tsunami as well. The question is how far has it extended. Ivan Cabrera has been on top of all of that, pouring over the information that he's getting. He joins us once again.
CABRERA: Yes, unfortunately, it just does not look good here for some of these cities. A tsunami was certainly generated. We know that. Now we're beginning to get a feel for how destructive this may have been. I want to take you into the -- essentially the geography, the topography here, to give you an appreciation of why this is going to be so destructive and how many people are going to be affected. As we fly you in, we talk about, again, these plates coming together, converging. What I want to do, Brandon, if we can go below the surface here, go below sea level. You can get an appreciation here of what's happening here.
You get this subduction zone, the Nazca plate essentially coming in from the west. That is pushing towards South America. You know, the Andes Mountains, that's how they were created, with this converging plate here. So the South American plate is going to the west. This one's coming to the east. They're colliding.
When you get underneath here, the depth obviously becomes shallower and shallower and shallower. So as that wave generated from the epicenter, from the tsunami, propagates further inland, you begin to essentially get that wave going higher and higher and getting bigger, because of -- because of the fact that you're getting closer to that shallow water here.
Now, depending on the coastline, the orientation -- there's a lot of variables here. But let's go into one of the ones that I think are going to be devastated really by this tsunami. Let's go in to Talcahuano, if that's where we are. Yes.
This is just flat. There's no chance here. This is very close to the epicenter. This is densely populated, 250,000 people. A quarter million residents in this tiny region here. It is very densely populated, and it is flat. It is at sea level. This is probably -- probably went under water, I must say, with the information I'm seeing here of a 2.3 meter wave. Certainly depending on the orientation here of the coast, all of this region here could have likely seen the tsunami and been under water.
No warning at all because of the proximity of the epicenter here. The folks who are watching us from further north and further south have more time to prepare if this tsunami continues to propagate and reaches your coastline here. But these folks had no chance in Talcahuano.
The other region I'm noticing here, Valparaiso -- you may be familiar with that -- further to the north, along the coastline here, also near the epicenter, also with an 800 kilometer an hour wave, really no warning here as well. Also densely populated here. The topography a little bit different, but you can see the coastal plain here, and that is obviously where the tsunami would have been certainly felt and felt badly here.
The further -- if you live right here, you're in better shape, obviously. You're in higher ground. But if you're right along the coastal plain, that -- we're getting information now -- was about 2.6, 2.6 meters. That is significant stuff.
Again, when we talk about that eight foot wave, that doesn't necessarily mean we're getting an eight foot wave. Because of the topography there, because of the coast, and the shallow depth that we have there, that wave will propagate and get higher and higher as it gets closer to the coastline here. So bottom line is I think we're going to be talking about a destructive tsunami hitting these coastal towns near the epicenter. As we speak, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean -- as we speak, there is a likely tsunami traveling, and getting closer and closer to other coastlines across the Pacific here.
I'll mention the ones again in the warning. Chile, obviously, Peru also in the warning, and now we've included Ecuador here in the warning. Again, the further away you get from the epicenter -- remember throw that rock or that bowling ball in the middle of the lake the further away you get, the more time you have to prepare.
So we go from warnings to watches; Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Pitcairn, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, now French Polynesia included in that watch. Hawaii not as of yet. If I get that, certainly I will pass it along to you.
I think the bottom line, Natalie, is what we're seeing here is, because of the evidence of the wave heights we've been recording with these buoys, we have pretty good evidence that a destructive tsunami may have been generated here. That's why you're seeing now the warning extended to other countries, and the watches extended as well.
That's one side of the story. I think it's going to be equally as tragic as the other side, which is of course the earthquake, an 8.8, right off the coast of Chile, near very densely populated towns. When you talk about an 8.8, my goodness, you can cross the Andes range and you can still feel it in Argentina. That is how intense the displacement of energy from an 8.8 earthquake can be, where you can fall off your bed in the middle of the night clear across the continent. You can imagine, if that happens there, what can happen in and around, Natalie, the epicenter of that 8.8.
We've been showing you some of the pictures that we've been getting. I really don't believe we're going to get any pictures out of the epicenter any time soon here, because I think the destruction is going to be incredible, not only from the earthquake, but also from the destructive tsunami that was likely generated from this earthquake.
ALLEN: Right, Ivan, and as you were speaking, we were getting our first pictures of day light coming in from Chile. We've been looking at all these dark pictures, but it's 7:32 right now in Chile, so we'll continue to be getting more day light pictures of the damage.
You were talking about the tsunami warnings. Perhaps we can get a little more information about that as we continue to look at day light on Chile, as we talk with geologists from Georgia Tech. Here in Atlanta, Georgia, Kurt Frankel joins us on the line. Mr. Frankel, if you could first -- we'll talk about the earthquake in a moment. Let's talk about the likely tsunami. Can you shed some light on what perhaps -- who perhaps could experience that?
KURT FRANKEL, GEORGIA TECH: Well, certainly in this sort of plate tectonic setting, where you have two plates converging, and the oceanic plate subducting underneath the South American continent -- the Nazca plate subducting underneath the South American continent -- those sorts of plate tectonic settings do tend to produce when you have large earthquakes like this. Certainly any low lying coastal areas would be in danger, as we saw in 2004 with, say, the Sumatra earthquake.
ALLEN: So it will be a while before we know who all could be impacted from the tsunami?
FRANKEL: Yes. Certainly these waves can travel long distances. Of course, they haven't issued a warning yet for, say, Hawaii. But that's always a possibility that those waves could travel across the ocean. More likely is that it will be a more localized wave that affects the west coast of South America, in close proximity to the earthquake.
ALLEN: That is some good news. Thanks for that information. What did you think when you saw -- and tell us about the fact that this is an 8.8 earthquake that has occurred.
FRANKEL: That's a large earthquake. To put it in perspective, in terms of the earthquake that happened recently in Haiti -- Haiti was, of course, 7.0, and for each one magnitude increase on the magnitude scale, it's 32 more energy increase. So this earthquake is almost 1,000 times stronger than the Haiti earthquake that happened a month ago.
ALLEN: That's amazing to try to even comprehend, once we saw what happened in Haiti. I'm sure because Haiti happened a short while ago, Mr. Frankel, that people are probably wondering, is there any connection between this earthquakes occurring in the general same area along this Rim of Fire? Can you tell us about that?
FRANKEL: I don't think there's any connection. It's a very sporadic process. And, you know, we can't predict earthquakes. I don't think there's any connection between these. It's just a coincidence that we had two large earthquakes -- three large earthquakes if you include Japan and Solomon Islands recently.
But the Ring of Fire, of course, is very active. You've got plates flying with each other all around the Pacific Ocean, which is why you have lots of earthquakes in this region, and, of course, lots of volcanic activity. So -- but I don't think there's any connection between the two.
ALLEN: Give us a little more of a geological lesson, if you can, and expand on the Ring of Fire. You're talking from where south -- certainly we all know San Francisco. But give us a little bit of a geology report about what's going on along these coasts.
FRANKEL: OK, so along the entire coast of western South America, you have both the Nazca plate in the northern part -- in northern central South America, and in southern South America, you have the Pacific plate, both of which are subducting, diving beneath the South American continent. So the -- those oceanic plates are denser than the continental plates of South America, and so they sink below it as those two plates collide. From time to time, of course, earthquakes are released and those plates slip forward down beneath the South American plate. At the same time, that down-going plate melts a little bit, and that's what creates the volcanoes along the entire sort of backbone of the Andes.
So that's the geologic setting. That's sort of what's going on along the entire Pacific Rim. You have these -- these oceanic plates are more dense than the continents, and they're subducting beneath the continents. From time to time, like I said, they slip, and you get these large earthquake events. You tend to get the largest earthquakes in these subduction zone settings, because you have a very large piece of crust subducting beneath another piece of crust. So the size of the earthquake is related to the size of the fault plane -- or the area it slips during the earthquake. These are the regions that have the largest areas of slip during earthquakes.
ALLEN: We thank you so much for your information. Thanks for being up with us, Georgia seismologist Kurt Frankel. Mr. Frankel, thank you. Mr. Frankel telling us that this magnitude about almost 1,000 times stronger than what Haiti just experienced, with an 8.8 up from a 7.0 in Haiti.
And one of our colleagues from CNN in Santiago telling us that he stopped counting the aftershocks at 25 and they can expect to have them for weeks on end. We're starting to get day light pictures from Chile, but we want to bring you some video that we have of Chile's president that spoke in the middle of the night to the public about the catastrophe and what the initial response was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BACHELET (through translator): We don't have any specific details. We will bring the information to you as soon as we have it. We know there's damages in different levels, but as a precautionary measure, we've evacuated some hospitals, whichever hospitals -- especially the ones that are older. This is a preventive measure.
Some of the hospitals here in the capital city have also been evacuated, with the help of the army.
What does it mean that we're calling these areas zones of catastrophe?
It basically means that we're releasing help, emergency help, to these areas where there are any kind of bureaucratic tie ups.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: President Michelle Bachelet of Chile talking probably about an hour and a half ago. That was very early on after the earthquake, giving an assessment of the initial response, as they continue to try to see who might need help and assess the damage there in Chile.
I also spoke earlier with CNN's president there in Chile, Rolando Santos. He's the one that told us that he stopped counting at 25, the aftershocks since the 8.8 earthquake occurred.
A geophysicist with the US Geological Survey told me a short while ago that they can expect weeks of this. They've already experience an aftershock that registered 6.2, another 6.9. So those are, in essence, earthquakes. They can expect to experience more.
Here's a look at some of the worst earthquakes in history for you, to try to put this in perspective, what they've experienced here in Chile. The 1976 quake in Tangshan, China, the second deadliest on record. At least 250,000 people killed in the initial quake. A huge aftershock 16 hours later. Both measure 7.8 on the Richter scale.
The 2004 tsunami, certainly everybody remembers, was triggered by a massive 9.2 magnitude quake off the coast of Sumatra. Nearly 220,000 people in south Asia were killed as a result.
More than 87,000 people killed in the 2008 quake in Szechuan in China. The 7.9 magnitude quake left millions homeless, cost an estimated 86 billion dollars damage.
And in 2005, a massive quake in northern Pakistan and India killed 79,000 people and left millions more homeless.
Of course, we're still waiting to get the numbers on Chile. And we'll certainly be finding that out in the days and weeks to come.
I did speak a short time ago with Rolando Santos. He's president of CNN Chile in Santiago. Here's what he had to say about what he experienced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS: You can see now a lot of collapsed buildings, a lot of facade. Lots of people are on the streets of Santiago, to be out of the buildings because of the aftershocks.
I lost count at 25 aftershocks.
ALLEN: Oh my.
SANTOS: The initial hit was at 3:34 this morning. I got tell you, one minute I'm in bed. The next minute, I'm on the floor and everything is coming off the walls. I'm a big man, about 120 kilos. OK? So think about that for a second. As I left my apartment to get to the office, there was not a thing on the walls or on a shelf, in the kitchen or anywhere else, that was still on the shelves.
As I've told you earlier, I've been through quite a few earthquakes, both as a reporter and living in California and other places. No question about the severity of this. I was on the floor trying to get up and/or trying to dodge the lamp and the telephone that was falling off the table and things off the walls for a good 45 seconds.
So I think there's a good piece of this, in that psychologically, this country is used to earthquakes. So from that perspective, there isn't a sense of panic. When I say good, you have to take that term in relative terms. This country is used to earthquakes, not this severe. It's been at least 100 years since they've had one this severe in this country.
But people don't tend to panic like they do in other places that aren't used to it. People are outside there homes. There's a general sense of waiting to see when they can go back, looking at the damage.
We've got reports, as I told you, of 20 people dead. I don't have any reports of people who are trapped in buildings. But we do have some collapsed buildings.
Now, in terms of the situation between the north and southern section, this was located about 100 kilometers north of Concepcion. Concepcion is to the south of Santiago. That area, right now, is still pretty much incommunicado by telephone and by cell phones. We don't have anymore reports out of that particular area.
There is a main bridge that connects the north and the south. And at the moment -- the bridge is located near the town of Talco. Talco is T-A-L-C-O, for those of you using maps. That bridge is inoperable right now. Right now, you can't get from here down there.
We also know that all flights coming into Santiago have either been diverted or have been sent back to their port of origin. We have some of our reporters who are coming back from vacation, because in this country, this is the end of the summer season. So everyone's coming back. We've had several of our reporters call in from Lima, who actually said they were in mid-flight and got turned back around.
ALLEN: Oh, how interesting.
SANTOS: I'm trying to confirm now whether the Santiago airport is back and open. It was shut down for a while. So that pretty much is the situation right now.
Again, if you look at the positives, this is a country that is really resilient. They understand the situation. There's no sense of panic that any of our reporting crews throughout the city or the rest of the region have picked up. I think everyone's trying to assess the situation and decide what the next steps are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Rolando Santos working to get more information for us right now. When he gets it, we'll speak again with him. We want to bring back in Rafael Romos here, our senior Latin American affairs editor, to just bring us the latest on the facts, the few that we do know, Rafael, about what has occurred in Chile.
ROMOS: I also wanted to point out, Natalie, that this time of year, it's almost the end of summer in Chile. And Chile hosts one of the most popular music festivals in Latin America. That's the Vina Del Mar Music Festival. It's in a coastal area. And it attracts a lot of international visitors. And we were hearing before from Ivan Cabrera that all those coastal areas are definitely very much a point of concern for many people.
ALLEN: We had a Tweet from an "American Idol" contestant who said he was there. So he's likely there for that music festival. He was saying that he was very, very scared and he was on the coast. Yes, you're right, a lot of tourists there in the summer season. We've seen these maps that show those low lying areas. It's likely devastating.
ROMOS: And it's incredibly popular. And you're talking about thousands and thousands of people who come to Chile because the weather is nice. You're talking about a very beautiful city, Vina Del Mar. The music world is there for a week or so. And a lot of people tend to linger after the festival, which would be this weekend and the next following days.
And these areas, resort towns that are located right in the coastal area of Chile -- so we have yet to find out what the situation right now with the people who are there and the coastal areas.
Right now, of course, the main focus -- the main point is what happened in the city of Concepcion, which is the closest point located to the epicenter of this 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
Also what happened in Santiago, the capital of Chile itself, which is located only 200 miles from the epicenter. We heard reports of historic buildings falling down, building that have been standing for hundreds of years. If these buildings are falling down, it's anybody's guess what might have happened to other buildings.
But the good piece of news out of this is that Chile is used to this. Their building code is very, very strict. So many of the buildings are designed to withstand this kind of magnitude, which is very different from what we saw in Haiti, where most buildings were so shoddily built that they didn't really resist the force of an earthquake.
So a lot of information to process. It's about 7:47 in the morning right now in Chile. And authorities are only now beginning to assess and understand what happened after this earthquake, 8.8 magnitude. We've been listening that this is falling into the category of major earthquake. Just as a point of reference, in Haiti, the magnitude was 7.0.
So much, much larger in Chile.
ALLEN: All right, Rafael, thanks so much. Ivan Cabrera has been following the story from our weather center. He was just mentioning how much stronger, Ivan, this one was from Haiti. We just heard the geologist say about 1,000 times stronger than what was seen in Haiti. That is just very hard to imagine.
CABRERA: It is incredible to imagine. When you talk about that magnitude, that factor of 32 -- if we had been talking about an 8.0 here, it would be 32 times stronger. You multiply that by 32 and you get 1,024. So, yes, 1,000 times stronger earthquake here than what we had in Haiti.
And it is a different earthquake. And it is important because the type of earthquake we had here is that convergent plate earthquake. We had the plates coming together, right? So that is the one that can cause a significant tsunami.
A tsunami has been generated. We know that. What I want to do is go over the countries here that are going to be experiencing the waves -- because, remember, tsunami is not just one wave. It comes in successive waves. And sometimes the first wave isn't even as destructive as the second or third.
So here we go. Peru from 9:30 to 11:30 GMT; Ecuador 12:00 to 13:00 GMT; there you see Colombia and Panama. The further you get away from the epicenter, from that displacement of water, the more time you're going to have.
Let's say there was an airfield at the epicenter and you were taking off on a jet liner going to these regions. That's how long it is going to take that wave to arrive. So that we're traveling here 800 kilometers per hour, 500 miles per hour. It's going to take you seconds to arrive right along the coast, a few kilometers away. It's going to take you minutes and hours as you get further and further away from the epicenter there.
We not only have tsunami warnings for Chile, Peru and Ecuador, but we also have the watches for the countries that you see here as well. Antarctica, certainly, with that displacement -- 360 degrees here of wave action that's going to be coming out of the center. So we're going south as well into Antarctica. And then further north, of course, Costa Rica, 13:45 to 15:00 GMT.
There is plenty of time. There's no reason -- there's no reason why these countries don't have enough time to get their citizens away from the coast. We have to get that word out to prepare for the potential of a destructive tsunami here. I think it's going to be, of course, less and less destructive as you get further away from the epicenter here. But we --
So it is now a tsunami warning in Hawaii. This is what we've been talking about, Natalie. Brandon giving me that information here. We've been monitoring the situation here. Conditions that we take a look at with those buoys are just giving us a better and better indication that there is a stronger likelihood for a tsunami to be arriving at these areas that we are pointing out here.
Now we have to add Hawaii into this tsunami warning as well. So this is serious stuff. Again, we talk about this earthquake, which in itself is going to be devastating -- an 8.8, 1,000 times stronger than the Haiti earthquake, and then, on top of that devastation, you're going to get incredible devastation that I think in some of the regions here is going to be -- essentially, some of these towns are going to be under water. One included here that I mentioned earlier is Talcahuano; 250,000 people live there. That's a quarter million people in a densely populated, tiny coastal town there. It is very nice there this time of year. As you know, we're south of the equator. So we're in the opposite season here, in the summer.
So it is gorgeous weather there. And I'm sure not only are there 250,000 people there, living there, but then, in addition to that, you got people visiting. So population increases. And who doesn't stay in a hotel at the coast when you go on vacation, if you're going there.
Population three million -- this is our shake map, what I'm showing you here. This is how many people who have been affected by severe shaking. Now that's been upgraded to three million. How many felt strong to very strong shaking? Nine million -- almost a billion -- 9,772,000 people have felt. That is including several countries.
You have to believe here -- this is just incredible stuff to think about -- the entire continent has felt this earthquake arriving very early in the morning hours, an 8.8 magnitude there.
Again, we're going to continue to monitor more data here as I'm getting it. This is important stuff here. It looks ugly on TV, but I just got handed information here as far as tsunami warning now in affect. My goodness, all these countries now in affect?
Tsunami warning -- we -- I'm just going to read them out to you, Natalie, here: Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Pitcairn, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Polynesia, Mexico, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, New Zealand, Tonga, American Samoa -- we're getting further and further away now. This is thousands of kilometers now -- Solomon Islands, Marshall Island, Papua New Guinea, the -- Russia, Marcus Islands, Indonesia, Northern Marianas, Guam. They are taking no chances here.
Japan is now under a tsunami warning. The Philippines now under a tsunami warning. And Chinese Taipei under a tsunami warning. The entire Pacific rim of fire, essentially, is going to be under the threat of a destructive tsunami over the next couple of hours.
The countries, though, Natalie, that I've been reading to you there have plenty of time to prepare for this. Concepcion had no chance here. And some of these coastal communities here near this 8.8 had no warning, had no chance to prepare. But as you get further away from that, certainly now we're talking about hours here before this tsunami -- or tsunami arrive, as far as these successive waves.
So plenty of time to get folks out of the way, which is really what you need to do at this point. There's search and rescue obviously under way with the earthquake destruction. But there is still going to be some evacuation and quick evacuation. Those governments are going to have to put their plans into affect immediately.
ALLEN: Ivan, thank you. We've just been handed -- I have been -- new numbers as far as deaths. Forty seven now confirmed dead from this earthquake in Chile. Just right after the earthquake, the number was six. So now it has gone up substantially. Forty seven dead in this earthquake right now.
We have been talking about Concepcion since this occurred, the city that is closest to the epicenter, the city that we've gotten virtually -- here at CNN at least -- no information from at this point. Several hundred thousand people live there.
One of our correspondents is from there. Carolina Escobar joins me now on the phone. She's here in Atlanta.
Carolina, what can you tell us about your home town, the people that live there? Any chance that you've heard from anyone there?
CAROLINA ESCOBAR, CNN EN ESPANOL: Natalie, hi. Good morning. Yes, I've been able to talk to my parents and sister. They're all fine. They now live in Santiago. They've lived there for a couple years. So they're OK.
I've been trying to communicate with friends -- lifetime friends because I was raised in Concepcion -- and I haven't been able. The lines are really congested. There's no way I'm able to communicate with them.
Just as you see the images on television, they're pretty bad. We are a country that have lived -- we know what an earthquake is, though after speaking to my mother and sister, they tell me this was way the worst ever, and definitely the longest they've ever experienced in their lifetime.
ALLEN: That is what we are hearing from people, as well, that we have spoken with, Carolina, who have been there and described the immense shaking that they witnessed.
Also we've been hearing that in the area of Concepcion there's a very popular music festival that takes place this time of year, since they're coming off the summer season. What can you tell us about that and the numbers of people it brings into that area?
ESCOBAR: I think you're talking about the Vina Del Mar. It's an international singing contest. It's a contest around Latin America. I was actually watching it last night. It's huge. It's amazing. It was the last night last night. It was absolutely full.
It ended at around 1:30 time in Atlanta. So that means that it was just before the earthquake, like minutes before. So it must have (INAUDIBLE) by evacuating the people from there and getting everybody safe. And this is in Vina Del Mar -- that is a city about 100 kilometers from Santiago. That is just by the sea. That must have been hectic last night.
ALLEN: Concepcion several hundred thousand people live in that city. I imagine that, yes, they build buildings to try to withstand very strong earthquakes. But I'm sure you're concerned with 8.8 what the reports will be form there, since we have not heard anything yet from Concepcion.
ESCOBAR: Well, actually, the city center -- most cities in South America are the ones that have the oldest construction. That means I would guess that's the most affected area. As you said, it's a country that we know we have to deal with earthquakes all the time. Not this strong though.
The images that I'm seeing on television too is that -- there's a lot of bridges around the city, because the widest river crosses by the city. I think that these bridges have suffered a lot of damage too.
The city has grown a lot during the last ten years. It's a lot of construction. I mean, again, bridges, highways. Being a Friday night, too, you've got to think that people must have been out partying, as a normal weekend. Being the finish of the summer time there, too, it was a big weekend over there.
So my main concern would be those that were still out and weren't mainly in their own houses, where they would know maybe what to do, but not in a night club, in a bar, or evacuating those type of buildings.
ALLEN: Carolina, we appreciate your talking with us. Carolina Escobar, she is a reporter for CNN. She spoke with her parents in Chile. They're OK. We hope your friends are as well in Concepcion. We thank you.
So it's coming up on 8:00 in the morning in Chile, as the country faced, in the middle of the night, a harrowing experience, an 8.8 earthquake.
If you are just joining us, we want to bring you the very latest that we know from Chile. We have just received the latest number of dead so far. Forty seven dead in Chile. I talked to a geologist who told me this earthquake in Chile is almost 1,000 times stronger than the earthquake that occurred recently in Haiti. Haiti experienced a 7.0. This has been an 8.8
There are reports, as we look at pictures of damage, the biggest bridge in Chile, connecting the northern to the southern part of the country, not passable. There are also reports of numerous aftershocks. One of our colleagues told us he stopped counting at 25. As we've been telling you, the biggest city closest to the epicenter is Concepcion, several hundred thousand people.
So we'll continue to bring you more information as we get it. For Ivan Cabrera in our weather center, I'm Natalie Allen. We join now CNN.
