MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Strong quake felt in Peru, Chile and Bolivia

No fatalities have been reported

A strong earthquake rocked Chile, Perú, and Bolivia Thursday morning. Authorities in the three countries are still to release detailed reports on the aftermath of the event.

Chilean Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) ruled out that a tsunami might ensue the occurrence. The seismic movement reached 6.9 points on the Richter scale.

“The entire southern region of Peru has been affected by the shaking of the ground as a result of this earthquake,” Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP) Executive President Hernando Tavera explained.

He added that, due to the depth (240 kilometers) of the earthquake's epicenter, it could easily be felt in northern Chile and in the department of Puno, bordering Bolivia. No casualties have been reported.

“Another characteristic is that the radius of perception of this tremor increases considerably,” Tavera added. However, some inhabitants of Ayaviri, a town near the epicenter, did not even feel the earthquake due to the terrain where the houses were built and the fact that it occurred many kilometers below the surface.

Peru is in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which registers at least 400 perceptible earthquakes annually. Hence, people were far from terrified of a shakeup that caused no major damage.

Despite being used to these situations, Peruvians were advised to remain calm and to be attentive to possible aftershocks. The most lethal earthquake in recent years took place in 2007 when a 7.9 magnitude quake (with its epicenter on the central coast in Pisco) left 595 dead and a small tsunami entailed.

Peru's National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) stated that: “it was felt between moderate and strong by the population. No damage is reported at the moment. Monitoring continues in vulnerable areas”.

In Bolivia, the Seismological Network of the San Calixto Observatory reported that the phenomenon was perceptible in several regions of the country, mainly in the department of La Paz.

The SHOA also pointed out that the quake was felt in the northern region, but the episode lacked “the necessary conditions to generate a tsunami on the seashore.”