Archive Digger

The tsunami warnings have been issued in the wake of this morning’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile. I was curious about the history of quakes and tsunamis in the region, so I did a little diving into the archival tubes and found lots of interesting historical perspective.

In an article from the 1989 Orlando Sentinel, I found this first-person piece published after the huge quake in San Francisco - it’s a first-person remembrance of a huge 1960 quake in Chile that caused a tsunami that killed 61 people in Hawaii. Yes, Hawaii.

These articles from the Los Angeles Times details a 7.4 earthquake that struck Chile in 1985. Within the first six hours after the quake struck, there already had been 48 aftershocks. More than 100 people died, but more than 150,000 were made homeless due to the quake.

Then, in 2007, this column from the LA Times details the fear of tsunami these residents of Patagonia have after earthquakes. We hope for the sake of those who live in Chile that a tsunami does not come to pass.