MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Strong earthquake to the south east of Ushuaia in the Drake passage

The epicentre was 21 kilometres deep

An earthquake 6.3 magnitude in the Ritcher scale was recorded Sunday off the coast of Ushuaia, Argentine Tierra del Fuego, but apparently too deep and far from land to cause any damage.

The US Geological Survey says the quake hit at 8 a.m. (1200 GMT) Sunday in Drake Passage, about 354 kilometres southeast of Ushuaia, Argentina, at a depth of 21 kilometres.

Argentina’s national Seismic Prevention Institute said the epicentre was located 380 kilometres to the south-southeast of Ushuaia in the Drake Passage at a depth of 25 kilometres.

“The movement was not felt in the city, there are no victims and no material damages have been reported”, said Hector Varela head of the Civil Defence Coordination Office in Tierra del Fuego.

“There was no perception at all in the whole provincial territory; not even in the outlook stations or from naval and Coast Guard intelligence outposts, which reported no movement”, added Varela. Seas were calm at South America's southern tip, and no tsunami warnings were issued.

Varela attributed the seismic event to the Shackleton fracture 380 kilometres south of Ushuaia. “It’s a seismic zone and these kinds of tremors happen with certain regularity”, pointed out Varela.

“The fracture coincides with the limit of the Scotia and Antarctica tectonic plaques”, said Jose Luis Hormaechea, head of the Astronomic Station in Rio Grande which also operates a seismic station to the north of Tierra del Fuego.

Chilean seismologists said it had no impact in Puerto Williams, a Chilean outpost across the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Alert Centre made no immediate official alert release following the tremor.

These kind of quakes can cause tsunamis or sea quakes but it should have happened at the most 10 to 12 minutes after, “so if nothing happened so far, there’s no tsunami danger”, according to Argentine seismologist Miguel Castro.

Nevertheless he pointed out that 350 kilometres “is not such a great distance” and anticipated that some minor replicas “can be expected, but of mush lesser intensity”.