At least 28 people were killed after a powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Ecuador’s central coast earlier yesterday, cracking buildings and rattling homes as far away as the capital of Quito.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the shallow quake was centered 27 kilometers (16 miles) south-southeast of Muisne, Ecuador, in a sparsely populated area of fishing ports popular with tourists.
“Based on the preliminary earthquake parameters, hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 kilometers of the earthquake epicenter,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
With a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles), the quake struck at 2358 GMT about 173 km west-northwest of Quito and just 28 kilometers south-southeast of Muisne, the USGS said.
Buildings swayed in Quito but authorities did not immediately report injuries or damage.
In fact, two earthquakes jolted the same area just 11 minutes apart, the USGS said. The first measured 4.8 and the second 7.8.
The quake also rattled northern Peru, authorities there said.
The major jolt came as rescuers in Japan were racing against the weather and the threat of more landslides to reach people still trapped by two big earthquakes that hit that country’s south.
At last 41 people are known to have died in the double disaster, with at least six still missing — feared buried in shattered houses or under torrents of mud.
