A strong aftershock that registered at 7.2 in the Richter scale shook Chile at around 11:40 a.m. local time. It struck around 150 km southwest of Santiago, Chile’s capital city.

The inauguration of Chile’s new president Sebastian Pinera was ongoing when the aftershock happened. “This could be the Katrina of President Pinera … in terms of how the population perceives the relief and reconstruction effort,” an economist commented.

Pinera promised to improve Chile’s emergency response agency to immediately start a total overhaul of the country.

Scientists say this occurrence is not unusual. Aftershocks this big usually follow a bigger and stronger original earthquake.

United States Geological Survey geophysicist Don Blakeman said, “We would expect at least a couple of 7′s. The bigger the quake, the larger the aftershock zone.”

According to Blakeman, it is possible that Chile will experience more aftershocks in the next few weeks up to several months. “It kind of runs in spells,” he explained.

Want to earn some spare money as a writer for us? Send us an email!