Earthquakes rattle Chile

Santiago, Agency
Five earthquakes, the strongest a magnitude-5.8, rocked the same regions of Chile devastated in February by a magnitude-8.8 temblor.

The latest quakes did not cause any casualties or serious damage, authorities said Thursday.

The seismic disturbances extended from the Valparaiso region, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Santiago, to Araucania, 672 kilometers (418 miles) south of the Chilean capital.

The magnitude-5.8 earthquake occurred at 11:49 p.m. Wednesday (0249 GMT Thursday) and its epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean 153 kilometers (95 miles) northwest of the city of Constitucion, the University of Chile Seismological Institute said.

A second, weaker temblor took place in the same general area at 1:45 a.m., followed by three more over the next five hours.

The Feb. 27 quake and subsequent tsunami in south-central Chile left some 400 people dead and caused an estimated $30 billion in damage.