Magnitude-6.2 Earthquake Rattles Argentina

By Ivana Kvesic, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 06, 2011

A strong, 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Argentina Thursday morning. There have been no reports of serious damage or injury from the earthquake, which was located 87 miles northeast of Salta.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit at 8:12 a.m. EDT at a depth of 5.9 miles. The depth of the quake is considered to be relatively shallow.

As the quake struck, people left school and business buildings to find safety, although some people reported that they did not even feel the quake.

Salta is Argentina’s eighth largest city and is located in the northwestern region of the country.

Salta has a population of around 464,678 inhabitants and is famous for having pleasant weather. However, the region is known to be “quake-prone” and faced a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that rattled the region just last month.

In January of 2011, a 7.0 earthquake also hit a rural area in northern Argentina.

Last year, another Latin American country was faced a natural disaster that impacted hundreds of people on the continent.

Chile was hit by a mammoth 8.8-magnitude earthquake, which resulted in a deadly tsunami and killed more than 500 people in the country.

The deadliest earthquake in history hit China in 1556. Over 830,000 people were killed in the quake.

Other notable deadly quakes included the recent earthquake that rattled Japan and set off both a tsunami and a major nuclear disaster, the deadly quake that rocked Indonesia in 2004, and the devastating earthquake that shattered much of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince in 2010.

Haiti is still recovering from the 7.0-magnitude quake that killed an estimated 222,570 people, displaced 1.3 million people, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes in and around Port-au-Prince.