Last Tuesday, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck about 53 miles off the northern Chilean coast, killing five people and well as requiring the evacuation of thousands from the coastal areas of the country. The death toll from this earthquake was relatively low, thanks in part to tsunami evacuation drills and preparation, which have increased greatly since a 2010 earthquake that killed over 500 people. Additionally, the areas damaged by this earthquake were sparsely populated when compared to the 2010 quake, which caused major damage to an airport in Santiago, Chile’s capital, populated with over 6 million people. Despite this relatively low death toll, much of northern Chile, especially the mining city of Iquique, was classified as a disaster zone due to the threat of landslides, and many homes and buildings were still damaged or destroyed. Tsunami warnings were also issued in the Phillipines, Russia, Hawaii, and other areas outside of South America, but the earthquake caused little to no damage in these regions.

Although the Chile has been one of the most seismically active areas of the world over the past century, some scientists believe that a much larger earthquake in the area is right on the horizon. Mark Simons, a geophysicist at Cal Tech, has stated that this isn’t the massive earthquake that many scientists were expecting in the area, and that an even more devastating earthquake in the area can be expected in the near future. It’s therefore imperative that the Chilean government expands their tsunami evacuation procedures, and continues to try to save as many lives as possible.