A giant tsunami wave slammed the Juan Fernandez Islands today off the coast of Chile following an 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
Reuters reported, via MSNBC, that a tsunami caused by the quake caused “serious damage” to Chile’s sparsely populated Juan Fernández Islands, where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18th Century inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.
Russia’s Ria Novosti reported:
A 3-meter tsunami wave hit on Saturday the Robinson Crusoe island, the largest in the Chilean Juan Fernandez archipelago, following a powerful earthquake which struck Chile earlier in the day, the country’s president, Michelle Bachelet, said.
“A village on the island is half-flooded, people have been evacuated to higher elevations,” the president said, adding there had been extreme damage from the tsunami.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Latin American country in the early hours of Saturday. The tremor occurred some 89 kilometers (55.3 miles) to the north of Chile’s second largest city Concepcion, some 341 kilometers (212 miles) from the capital of Santiago.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said it was heading towards Easter Island, which is being evacuated.
Meanwhile…. The 28th aftershock, magnitude 5.2, just struck in the Metropolitana region of Chile – U.S. Geological Survey.