we want to update you on the breaking news out of chile this morning. 8.8 magnitude quake, just a very massive earthquake has struck chile. so far, 78 people dead. now i know many people are wondering about their loved ones in chile. we are getting a statement from in fact, the state department, officials tell cnn there are about 1,000 american citizens in the most effected area. about half are dual nationals. now, there are no reports yet of any american injuries or deaths according to the state department official. but there is little or no communication within the areas of concepcion which is very near the epicenter. the embassy has not been able to reach the security officer in that area just yet. but the embassy has set up a crisis center. and they are urging americans to use text messaging, twitter, facebook, social media to stay in touch with their loved ones. and they are working on that
stronger of an earthquake. not just one time stronger. that s 32 times stronger. so let s now go to 9.0. that would be another 32. so that s not 64, that s 32 times 32. that would be 1,000 times stronger than the haitian earthquake if we go to 9.0. but we re not 9.0, we re 8.8, close enough. somewhere between 800 and 900 times the shaking power of what was the haitian earthquake happened overnight here in chile. so as we zoom in here. here s the u.s. there have been a couple of quakes across parts of southern california but nothing like this large circle that we re going to see here. chile, the very long country right here on the west coast. there s a subduction zone. that s the dark line, the trench. there s the earthquake right here, the epicenter literally
occurs, this part of the crust is going to rebound up like this and the surface of the ocean floor moves up which causes the tsunami. i m getting lots of waves over your head so i m going to i know that that means that i have other things here to show you. this is where the fault or the plate would have been. right. would have been earlier, yesterday. that s right. so as this one is coming down, it s essentially bending this is the ocean iic plate. ocean. this is continent. this is denser than this so it s sinking beneath. as it s sinking it s locked most of the time. the upper plate, south america is bending down and eventually that stress exceeds the strength of that rock and pops an earthquake and the ocean floor or the floor moves, the crust moves up. this is exactly what happened, right? yes. so there s water up here, not very much because eventually the andes mountains are there. this water what was moved. that s correct. the land moved as well.
the schools is okay and the kids can walk to school, then we ll continue as planned for wednesday. if not, then we ll have to figure out another plan. we re talking with other private secto sectors. they were ready to begin the school year you ve been listening to the minister of education there in chile. i want to take you now on the phone to marisio hernandez in santiago via skype. we should be able to see him. i understand that you were actually about to go to bed when the earthquake struck. take me back to that moment in time and tell me what happened. well, it was very difficult because i was getting into bed. very tired after watching a movie. and i was almost falling asleep when everything started to move slowly at the beginning, very
imminent it is. well, you said it, i mean, it s happening. one of the great things is, after the tsunami we saw from that earthquake, they put in all kinds of detectors across the pacific ocean to have us have an advanced notice on this and some of those detectors are buoys and sensors out in the ocean that have detected the water rises and that s how we know that this tsunami is moving, it has been propagated from the earthquake and we know the direction and kind of at the speed and the magnitude of these waves, so, we re now dealing with kind of an improved system to where we were five years ago and gives everybody such a good lead time of the effects of this. i ve got a question for you, rick, when you cover hurricanes, a lot of times when the hurricane is so strong and so forceful, once it starts to hit lands and it breaks up and slows down and becomes just a tropical storm. in a situation like this, with the tsunami, it is hitting certain islands, does that mean