Chile, one of the most seismically active countries in the world, has been hit by a new earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale - according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The epicentre was about 30 kilometres east of the city of Calama, in the northern region, at a depth of 101.3 kilometres in the Atacama desert. So far, local authorities have not reported any human casualties or material damage.

„The tsunami threat to the Chilean coast is distant," said Felipe Plaza of the national disaster management service in a post on X. That matters because Chile has a history of catastrophic tsunamis - in 2010, after an 8.8 magnitude quake, the wave killed more than 520 people.

The context is harsh. Chile is a country where three tectonic plates collide - the result is nearly continuous seismic activity. Locals do not flinch at tremors below 7. That is the status quo - not an exaggeration. Just as the Balkans live with frozen wars in the neighbourhood, Chile lives with earthquakes.

Historically, Chile has two record-breaking earthquakes. The first - Valdivia 1960, magnitude 9.5 on the Richter scale - is the strongest earthquake ever recorded on the planet. 9,500 people died and the city of Valdivia was destroyed. The second, in 2010, with magnitude 8.8, triggered a tsunami that devastated coastal villages. Today's 6.9 is within the predictable - but in seismology „predictable" means „waiting for the next one".

For a Balkan reader, Chile is far away. But the architecture and building standards Chile developed for earthquakes are the same ones Macedonia adopted (with a long delay) after the 1963 Skopje earthquake. The next time you see approval for a new apartment block without a seismic engineering factor - remember Chile. They already paid for that 65 years ago.