TWEETS FROM CHLI

Here are some of your emails and tweets:

I am in the La Reina/Las Condes area of Santiago. It's OK on our few streets - lasted about two minutes. It's 0430 now and roads mad with traffic and everyone out in streets fearing aftershocks.

Andy, Santiago

I live in Santiago, and I guess it woke the whole city up. The same goes for the centre-south part of the country.

Pablo Marambio, Santiago, Chile

No light, no telephone, no internet, but everything is okay at home

marcosko, Chile, via Twitter

I am a university professor that lives in Santiago. This is a massive earthquake since 1986 and the cities resisted well and communications by internet 3G are fine but not mobile phones yet. Santiago seems quiet with a brilliant moon.

Cristian Bonacic, Santiago

Things were certainly moving a bit, but no structural damage visible. Some fires could be seen in the distance. No electricity at the moment or phone lines, but apart from that, so far not so bad.

Mark Winstanley, Vina Del Mar, west of Santiago

We have also been shaken at this side of the Andes in Argentina. We could feel it for about one minute and again after 10 minutes. There was no panic but I guess this has been the strongest we have had in many years.

Diego, Mendoza, Argentina

I live in Mendoza and the earthquake was felt pretty strongly here. I am listening to the radio and it was felt in other provinces like San Luis , Neuquen and Cordaba too.

Graciela Martin, Mendoza, Argentina

Right here in Pergamino (200km north of Buenos Aires and about 1800km from Concepcion, Chile) we were at 0345 in the living room, when suddenly we started to see the very big lamp hanging from the ceiling started to move very fast making circles.

Enzo, Pergamino, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Just woke up and turned on the news... is this in relation to the 8.8M that hit Concepcion, Chile?

Sure seem to be some big ones hitting population centers of late...

Santigo is 200 miles from the epicenter of this quake...it happened further south,
it's an big one, 53 countries along the Pacific Ocean are now under tusuami alert,
with the main wave action headed for southern Alaska/Canada around 1 pm. Pacific time. News is showing collapsed buidings closer to the epicenter, cracked streets...Chile in the past has had the largest recorded quake in history..something over an 9.2 mag. My dogs did somethign unusal for them last night, messed in the downstairs..naturally I walked into it in the dark..Oh Yuck!
Enough of that. In an few hours we bury my brother in-law, everyone arriving in town now..but keep your eyes on this one, the after shocks are as large as many
earthquakes noramlly...or in the over 6 range. Thanks for posting the twitter information.

A Tsunami Wave has hit French Polynesia at approximately 15:45 UTC.

Google Earth Distance about 4800 miles

Time difference approximately 9 1/4 hours

Resultant average wave speed is 518 miles per hour

Google Earth Distance from epicenter to Hawaii ... approximately 6500 miles

At average speed of 518mph the ETA at Hawaii is 18:45 UTC

CNN International estimating Acapulco Mexico to be affected by Tsunami at 1615 UTC ... about 20 minutes.

wow SilverEagle ..... bet the surfers are out in San Diego ....... hope they arent stupid enough to ride the big wave !

From Epicenter to SoCal .... 5,600 miles

ETA 17:48 UTC

CNN International: Hawai activating Tsunami Warning 16:01 UTC

On the CNN new story comments one person said "Tsunami sirens went off in Hawaii....people are rushing to the mountains"

thank goodness for the sirens - there is little that we can do (at present) to stop the quakes, but at least we can help prevent people from perishing in any tsunamis which result from the quakes.

Loss of property will still hurt, but loss of people hurts a whole lot more.

Simon