The tsunami caused by an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale that shook Chile killed five people and alerted all the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, although their strength was lower than previsto.Sin however, the authorities lifted a tsunami warning after reaching a maximum height of waves around a meter, less than expected, according to the Tsunami Warning Center Pacific. Larger waves were recorded in the Chilean city of Talcahuano, where it rose 2.3 feet above the ordinary, while in Columbus and Valparaiso were around 1.3 meters. 

The tsunami crossed with the speed of an airplane on the open sea and triggered alerts in fifty nations and territories, from

In Chile, Juan Fernandez archipelago, about 600 kilometers from the continent, a giant wave flooded the town of San Juan Bautista, causing the five deaths, while eleven other residents are missing, officials said.

Half a day after the earthquake occurred in Chile, the waves came to French Polynesia after crossing the entire ocean and reached a height of 1.8 meters above its normal level, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and U.S.

The Ecuadorian government feared in particular its effect on the Galapagos Islands, a thousand miles west of the continental shores, and ordered an evacuation of low lying areas. "People in the Galapagos, very disciplined, very calm, very quiet was to higher ground", as a precaution, said its president, Rafael Correa, who added that the phenomenon "practically unnoticed."

According to NONA the waters rose only 0.3 meters in the archipelago, as well as Easter Island. Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and Central America were on alert for the Tsunami, but the waves did not rise to the level provided and Latin American countries withdrew the warning notices.

In Mexico, for example, the average height was 25 centimeters, so the waves did not put at risk and the population or infrastructure, as its government. In comparison, the sea rose 10 meters in Indonesia during the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which killed more than 226,000 dead. NONA had predicted that the waves could reach 2.5 meters in Hawaii, but in the end only rose about one meter maximum height on the island of Maui.

Consequently, the agency lifted a tsunami warning in the archipelago, but warned that strong currents can still register and unusual and asked residents not to return to evacuated areas until they receive authorization from local authorities.