An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale shook the seas off the southern tip of South America on Friday morning. 

It was felt in Ushuaia, the capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province, just before 10 a.m. Local authorities ordered people in the nearby city of Puerto Almanza to stay away from the coast due to the risk of aftershocks.

Chilean authorities issued an evacuation alert for the entire coastal area of the southern Strait of Magellan. 

“Due to the threat of a tsunami, we ask for the beach area of the Antarctic Territory, Magallanes Region, to be evacuated,” the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response (Senapred) said in a statement.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said the warning level had been downgraded from preventive evacuation to just “warning”. However, he said in a post on X that it was “very important to remain alert to official communications and not to hesitate to obey what the authorities say. In these cases, it is always better to be safe than sorry.” 

Argentine President Javier Milei did not make a public post about the earthquake.

Danger of aftershocks

On the Argentine side, some structures were shaken and furniture, appliances and other objects moved in the tremor. So far, no structural damage or casualties have been reported, but the authorities and inhabitants alike remain alert to aftershocks.

Municipal authorities in Ushuaia said Tierra del Fuego’s geological characteristics meant the risk of tsunami there was very low.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity worldwide, the quake was 10 kilometers deep. Its epicenter was over 200km from Ushuaia in the Drake Passage, the body of water between Cape Horn on the southern tip of Chile and the South Shetland islands, which are part of Antarctica. 

It was also felt by the inhabitants of Río Grande, on the north eastern coast of the island province. Minutes after the tremor, an aftershock of magnitude 6.1 was recorded in the Strait of Magellan, in the far south of Chile. That, too, was felt in Tierra del Fuego.

“There is no danger of tsunami in Tierra del Fuego,” Pedro Franco, the province’s Civil Protection Secretariat, said in a press conference. “It is essential that the families of Tierra del Fuego remain calm and bring peace of mind to their loved ones on the mainland,” he said, adding that “essential services, such as transportation and the airport, continue to operate normally.” 

Navigation in the Beagle Channel has been prohibited as a precautionary measure, he said.

Local authorities said the population should be ready to evacuate homes and workplaces if they felt another major tremor. “Talk to family to bring peace of mind, and read official sources [of information],” the statement read.