A 7.6-magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said Sunday. The US Geological Survey (USGS), meanwhile, said that the earthquake's magnitude was 7.7 on the Richter scale.
Prelim M7.7 earthquake near the coast of Los Lagos, Chile Dec-25 14:22 UTC, updates https://t.co/8RemuChltH
— USGS Big Quakes (@USGSBigQuakes) 25 декабря 2016 г.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for areas within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter of the earthquake.
"The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center [PTWC] has issued a tsunami threat message for other parts of the Pacific located closer to the earthquake. However… based on all available data there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii," the PTWC said in a statement.
Later, Chinean authorities cancelled the tsunami warning.
The tremors were recorded at 11:22 a.m. local time [02:22 GMT], the seismologists stated.
The quake struck near the coast of Los Lagos, 40 kilometers southwest of Puerto Quellon in Chile, its depth is some 33 kilometers.
Earthquakes of 7.0-magnitude and above are considered to be major ones and may cause serious damage to infrastructure as well as entail human casualties. There were no immediate reports of any casualties as a result of the quake.
Sur de Chiloé con daños en carretera que obligan a un cierre temporal pic.twitter.com/MB9W7MS15z
— SalvadorSchwartzmann (@S_Schwartzmann) 25 декабря 2016 г.
Chilean authorities have announced an evacuation operation in regions struck by the quake.
Earlier in the day, a 5.4-magnitude quake struck northern Chile near the border with Bolivia.
