A magnitude 4.3 earthquake was recorded on the afternoon of Sunday, October 11, with its epicenter 53 kilometers east of Socaire, a village in the municipality of San Pedro de Atacama, in the Antofagasta region.
T13 reported the information based on data from the National Seismological Center (CSN) at the University of Chile. Socaire is an Atacameño village in the highlands about 90 kilometers south of San Pedro de Atacama. The epicenter was in a sparsely populated mountainous area toward the border with Argentina.
The sources do not fully agree on the details. Meganoticias reported a magnitude of 4.2 and located the epicenter 53 kilometers southeast of Socaire. According to that outlet, the tremor occurred at 18:33.
Meganoticias also reported a depth of 243 kilometers. In earthquakes this deep, the energy usually reaches the surface with reduced strength. T13 did not report the depth.
According to Meganoticias, the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) reported no harm to people or damage to structures, and no outages of basic services. Neither source mentioned a tsunami alert. The sources also did not report the intensities felt in nearby communities.
The CSN distinguishes between magnitude and intensity. Magnitude measures the energy released by an earthquake and has a single value for each event. Intensity measures the effects on people and buildings using the Modified Mercalli scale, which has twelve degrees. In Chile, a seismic event reaching intensity VII or higher is classified as an earthquake.
