Strong quake shakes South Pacific seabed

WASHINGTON - A strong earthquake shook the bed of the southeast Pacific ocean west of Chile on Friday, the United States Geological survey reported.
The quake, measuring 6.1 on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, struck the southern part of the East Pacific Rise, an expanse of sea floor lying between South America and the islands of the South Pacific, at 1824 GMT.
The epicenter was 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) underwater at a point more than 1,960 miles (3,200 km) west of the Chilean coastal town of Osorno and 1,440 miles (2,320 km) east-southeast of the tiny British territory of Pitcairn Island.
The Moment Magnitude scale measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

04/13/2007 20:05 GMT