SANTIAGO, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - Chilean scientists warned on Wednesday that more shocks could be forthcoming after a deadly 8.2-magnitude earthquake hit the country's northern regions on Tuesday.
Geologist Marcelo Lagos, who was the first to raise the alarm on March 25 about the possibility of an impending "earthquake and tsunami in the north," told the La Cuarta newspaper that citizens and authorities "need to stay alert."
"This [seismological] zone has traits that may cause an even more powerful [earthquake]," he said.
The same opinion was voiced by Arturo Belmonte of the University of Concepción, who said that scientists had initially expected a more powerful earthquake. He also said his data indicates a four-meter zone allowing further displacement of the ground, and the aftermath of such a shift would "in strict terms, be equal to an earthquake of the same magnitude."
Klaus Bataille, a seismologist and professor at the University of Concepción, said it was possible that an earthquake of the same, or even greater magnitude, may strike.
Diana Comte, a seismologist at the University of Chile, said that scientists were still unable to determine whether Tuesday's seismic event was the great earthquake that had been expected in the region for more than a century.
At least five people lost their lives in the earthquake, which triggered a tsunami alert and prompted hundreds of thousands of Chileans to evacuate.
The wave produced overnight by the earthquake 100 kilometers northwest of Iquique in northern Chile is reported to have been up to two meters high, disrupting power lines and causing people to flee coastal areas.
About 300 inmates at a female prison escaped in the wake of the disaster.
