Antarctica: strong earthquake near a Chilean base

The evacuation alert was lifted due to the absence of a tsunami threat, following the strong earthquake that occurred on Saturday evening (January 23) in Antarctica near the Chilean base Eduardo Frei, the Chilean authorities announced. .

The National Emergency Office (Onemi) "is

," he said on Twitter.

The earthquake was recorded at 8:36 p.m. in the sea, some 210 kilometers east of this base, and 10 kilometers deep, according to Onemi, which reassessed the earthquake's magnitude from 7 to 7.1.

The Onemi had reported that due to this earthquake, 80 people from the Eduardo Frei base had been evacuated, along with a total of 81 other people from three other Chilean bases (O'Higgins, Fildes and Prat) .

In addition, five other foreign bases were evacuated, without the Onemi specifying their nationalities.

The Chilean Air Force's Eduardo Frei base is located 1,230 km south of the continent, on King George Island.

It is the largest Chilean base in this territory.

It is located in the immediate vicinity of Villa Las Estrellas, a village which includes, among other things, a hospital, a school, a bank, a small supermarket, a post office and a chapel.

The maximum population in summer is 150 people and the average population in winter is 80 people.

At the same time, at 9:07 p.m., another earthquake, magnitude 5.9, occurred 14 km from Santiago de Chile, at a depth of 122 km, unrelated to the strong earthquake in Antarctica.