An 8.2-magnitude earthquake hit 62 miles northwest of Iquique, the capital of the Tarapacá region of Chile, on Tuesday night. The earthquake trigged a tsunami and small landslides, killing five people, evacuating tens of thousands and cutting power to some areas of Iquique and Arica.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday night that the government was unsure of the extent damage, but that “the country has faced these first emergency hours very well.” The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues several warnings for other pacific coastal cities in Chile, Peru and Ecuador on Tuesday night, but cancelled all of them by Wednesday morning.
In the hours after the earthquake, 300 female prisoners escaped during an evacuation of an Iquique prison, but more than a dozen of the inmates were recaptured shortly thereafter.
Chile occupies one of the most earthquake-prone zones in the world known as the “Ring of Fire.” The country has experienced about 300 of varying magnitudes in recent weeks. And in 2010, a 9.5-magnitude quake—the sixth-largest ever recorded—killed 525 people and trigged a massive tsunami that devastated several coastal towns in central and south Chile.
