One million people have been evacuated in Chile after a powerful earthquake hit the country's central region. At least eight people died when the 8.3-magnitude quake hit.
A tsunami alert was issued for the entire Chilean coast but has since been lifted.
The quake that rocked Chile on Wednesday was five times more energetic than the one that devastated Nepal back in April. And yet the early indications are that the death toll will be a fraction (perhaps a thousandth) of what it was in the Himalayan nation.
In large part, this is simply down to preparedness. This was Chile's third massive quake in five years; the region all too frequently experiences magnitude 8 events. As a consequence, the building codes are strict and generally well enforced.
What is more, the people themselves are well versed in how to react during and after an event.
It is not perfect. In 2010, an 8.8-magnitude quake witnessed failings on the part of the monitoring network and the system for alerting people to the imminent tsunami threat.
Since then, the Chilean government has spent millions upgrading the country's seismic network of sensors, and made improvements to telecommunications systems that share critical information and warnings.
