the first step and be out spoken about your medical care. thank you to all of our guests. see you next time. >> good evening, every. welcome to aljazeera america. i'm johnson cit recall, regret,s from general motors ceo for a decade of safety defects. lawmakers tell her people died of the failure to communicate. outbreak, the dangerous ebola virus spreading through west africa, now called an

unprecedented epidemic. >> the affordable care act is here to saw. >> beyond expectations. the president says 7 million americans signed up for the healthcare reform bill, but republicans say that costs are still going up. and zebra stripes, the new research on black and white and why the animals look the way they do, probably not what you think. and we'll get to those stories in a moment. but first, breaking news. tonight off the coast of chile, the u.s. geological survey said that the region has been struck by a powerful 8.2 earthquake. a tsunami warning is in effect

for chile, peru and ecuador. we'll have more on the story as soon as it's available. and now to the other big story tonight. out of the middle east, talks between israel and palestinian authority are near collapse. secretary of state john kerry has suggested that he won't return to the region any time soon and movements on both sides threaten to derail peace talks. nick schifrin is there with the story. >> reporter: with the stroke of a pen, mahmoud abbas has brought the peace process to near collapse. long the statehood from organizations. the peace talks were on the palestinians not doing this, but habas accused the palestinians of procrastinating and he wasn't willing to wait any longer. >> we don't want to use this against any, we don't want to

clash with the u.s. administration. we're on good terms with all. and the u.s. is helping us. we mentioned 39 times, we didn't find alternatives. this is our right. >> the document is "the state of palestine, the geneva conventions, anti-torture and anti-corruption and women's rights convention. >> the decision was made today. and yesterday, to proceed with signing international treaties that guarantee the status of palestine as an occupied state. >> reporter: palestinians argue that israel created the crisis when it released only three groups of prisoners and refused to release the fourth. and now the decision is israeli's. is it wil willing to continue te talks after abbas' announcement? >> there has to be a more substantive intervention in the

community, which spells out an american policy which is attractive to both sides. >> reporter: to launch this, secretary of state john kerry made it his personal mission. he met with the israeli leaders several times. and he was even committed to sentence jonathan polar to life for spying on israel. kerry asked israel to keep talking because abbas would go even farther. >> none of the agencies that president abbas has signed, he has pledged to me that he will keep his agreement and intends to negotiate through the end of april >> reporter: when this process began, the u.s. promised a comprehensive peace and then it backtracked for future talks, and now it's scrambling just to save the talks, and it's not

certain if that will even be possible. >> the u.s. senator for israel's oldest daily newspaper, and welcome. what happened in the signs of progress, and things seemed to fall apart in a matter of hours. >> it's hard to tell where we're in the stage where everybody is holding out for everything that they can get before they reach an agreement or if in fact we have gone over the edge. this morning, there was a lot of optimism that the trump card that kerry threw in with the release of jonathan pollard, was the log jam, but by evening, it appeared to have the opposite effect. the palestinians saw that israelis were getting a big prize, and they felt short

changed. >> will it, and how it will be resolved, i don't know, and obviously, if you're a soccer fan, we're in the extra time, after the 90th minute, and they still have from april. >> thank you said that it was a big card to play, and was this a sign of desperation on the part of secretary kerry? >> it seemed that way to many americans. it wasn't out of the equation that pollard would be thrown on the table at some point in time. but not for a simply extension of the talks. but the fact is that the situation had gotten so bad between the two sides, the distrust and the chicken and the egg and who goes first, that secretary kerry thought it was necessary to bring this pollard card forward. and i'm not sure that he even succeeded in convincing president obama completely of the wisdom of this move.

and now we have to see what he got in exchange for this big prize. and whether that's enough to settle the difference. as of this evening, it doesn't seem to be that way. >> in fact, the white house released a statement this afternoon suggesting that president obama has not made a decision yet on pollard. bupollard's name has been out fr a while, and how important is it. >> it's important that has increased over the years, and in the beginning, israel was trying to distance himself over pollard, and there's increased concern on the right wing side, and there's a sense shared by most israelis on the right that he has done his share, over 30 years in jail, and there's comparisons to other spies, and it has come time for him to be

set free, and even people who support his being set free are not comfortable with his being linked to the prisoners, and so on, but there's support for that. >> welcome, and thank you very much. and nato is putting ties with the kremlin. a 28-member group is suspending over crimea. they call it the worst in a generation. >> it's the biggest challenge in a generation. dip attic channels remain open. but there are many members who wants to flex military muscle to send russia i clear cut message. in the coming weeks and months, there will be more nato military hardware being sent to eastern europe.

and more nato planes. they have called it a clear signal that they want to send a visible warning to moscow. >> through its actions, russia has chosen to undermine the very foundations upon which our cooperation is built. the military action against ukraine and the legal annexation of part of ukraine's sovereign territory constitutes a flagrant breach of russia's international commitments. >> also, a special representative to nato, kiev claimed its desire to reclaim crimea. >> crimea is an integral part of ukraine, and we plan support

against russia and against russian actions in crimea. and we believe that with the international support, we will be able to return crimea to ukraine. >> nato now says its time to reaffirm the core values. but all nations should be able to choose their own newspapers. >own -- futures. >> now to capitol hill, where lawmakers grilled the ceo of gm. the faulty parts on the cars have been blamed for more than a dozen deaths. >> you swear thatort testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> reporter: it was a grilling subcommittee on oversight. >> what you just answered is gobbledygook. it's your own specification. it's your company's

specification. if a part doesn't make a specification, why would you not refuse it? >> reporter: congress wants to know why gm installed faulty ignition situations that didn't meet specks in their cars, and why didn't they respond to problems with the engine not turning off? problems so great that the airbags failed, in suspected crashes, causing at least 13 deaths. >> i want to show how easy it is to turn this key in this switch. if you had a heavy keychain like my mom's keychain, or if you were short and you bumped up against the ignition with your knee, it could cause this key to shut off. >> they heard a refrain from ibarra that she wouldn't have answers until the company completes the investigation.

>> you don't know why? >> i do not know the answer to that, and that's why we're doing this investigation. >> given complaints about ignitions turning off while driving, why was this not a safety issue. >> again, i can't answer at that point in time and that's why we're doing a complete investigation. >> bharara is a second generation employee, but has only been at the helm for a short time. representative jan checkosky. >> is the company responsible? gm, is it responsible? >> we will make the best decisions for our customers, recognizing that we have legal obligations, as well as the moral obligations. >> it was not just the gm

representative under pressure, but congress is asking why they didn't act sooner. >> is the problem that gm did not provide the information or were they unable to sort through the information to solve the problem? >> the team worked hard to understand what was happening, and wasn't able to see a significant enough trend. >> the questions continue wednesday when the senate takes a turn, digging into what the federal government and gm new about the company's problems. libby casey, aljazeera, washington. >> also watching the problem was "real money's" ali velshi. and he says that barra did not win over critics before congress today. >> i don't usually hold out a lot in the hearings. and this gave me less than i had hoped for. documents were submitted to congress, and a lot of them were asking specific questions, and

gm's new ceo, mary barra said she wasn't familiar with the documents, and she was troubled by some of the allegations being made. but the bottom line, there were very few answers. and as she was walking out, she got asked more questions technical questions, not legal questions, and she said, we have hired tony velucas, the chairman of a law firm, and in my opinion, it was a poor performance. they didn't get much news out of her x. quite frankly, i think that americans deserve to know if it's safe to get into their cars, and you're no safer tonight than you were a night ago. >> how many is this going to affect the gm brand. >> well, i was thinking about the toyota recalls and the ford

bronco recalls, and the fact is that everybody bounces back after these before you do the right thing. it involves two steps. one is taking action, and gm has appointed a safety director, and i was surprised they didn't have one of those, and kenneth weinberg has been hired to handle the claims from the families. and they have seemed to be dealing with the recalls, there are 6 and a quarter them. but mary baraa met with 22 family members of those who died in general motors cars and those who died. but there hasn't been this real come forward and tell us what's wrong with your company, and until that happens, nobody is going to feel good about it. >> there are problems not just with the brand, but the company itself. and when i think of the other

list of problems like toyota and ford, how does this one compare? >> it's big. 6 and a quarter million cars. it's not the biggest. of the toyota was bigger and there were bigger ones, but it's big. gm is a big company. and when you measure the cost of fixing this, it's not going to cripple general motors, the legal costs will not cripple general motors, and in fact, their sales were up in the month of march. so i think gm survives this, and in the end, everybody has to do the right thing, what is the right thing and when will it happen? but they will survive. >> all right, ali, thank you. and you can catch "real money" with ali velshi, every night, 7:eastern, 4:00 pacific time. the families of those skilled in the crashes were in washington today. and they want to make sure that the human toll is not a problem. >> many of the families were dealing with the tragic results

of these ignitions for years. and the relatives of the 13 deaths linked to these problems, they want general motors to be held accountable and they want all cars in question to be taken off the road until the repairs have been neighed. >> stabbing together in solidarity, the families of the victims express their anger and sadness while holding photos of loved ones lost. like amber marie rose, who was only 16 when her chevy cobalt crashed no a tree in 2005. her airbag never deployed. >> i this that gm needs to be accountable to the public. >> our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives and husbands are gone because they were the cost of doing business gm style. >> in 2009, 19-year-old sarah

troutwine died in a similar fashion. her cobalt crashed in south carolina and her airbag didn't deploy either. sarah's mother is calling on gm now. >> the only thing that matters to me now is getting these cars off of the road. >> sharron sharky's son died when thinks cobalt crashed into a rock wall and burst into flames in 2012. she said that the recent apology from mary barra on how the company handled the recall does little to help her. >> it doesn't matter, she can't bring my son back, she can't bring my daughter's brothers back, she can't bring my grandchildren's uncle back or my mother's grandson back. i'm very angry and i'm tired of

being an angry mother. >> many of the victims were very young, like 18-year-old natasha and 15-year-old amy. both were passengerred that died in a cobalt crash that also left the driver with brain damage. the birth mother of amber said that she has linked 29 fatalities and a facebook group of the victims, but general motors currently introduced 13 deaths, but this is just the beginning of piecing all of this together. >> it's a painful process. >> awful. >> all right, michelle. more on the breaking news. a massive earthquake off of the coast of chile. the u.s. geological survey said this was 8.0 in mag tut. it was off of west chile. a tsunami warning is in effect for chile, peru and ecuador.

joining us, a professor of geology, and pat, welcome, and what do you make of this quake? >> this is a big earthquake in one of the world's most active spots for earthquakes. i was in iquique myself. >> we want to interrupt you. this is live video off of the coast of chile, and obviously there's a big concern for a tsunami, and there's a tsunami warning in effect. >> when i was there, in iquique, it's about as perfect a shaped harbor as you can imagine to magnify and make a tsunami large. >> how far off of the coast are we talking? >> 60 miles or so, and the report shows it to be a shallow

earthquake. 5 or 6 miles deep. >> what does that mean. >> this is closer to the surface, and more energy can get into the water. and the whole thing for a tsunami is transferring the energy out of the rock and into the water, and the shallower the earthquake, this could have offset the sea floor, and depending on the motion of the sea floor and the direction it's going, this could be a serious tsunami in iquique. >> we can see the curve of the bay that you're talking about there, the lights are on at the beach. and clearly, the camera is keeping an eye on the water there to see what happens. but talk to me about it. in this quake, could it have caused that far off of the coast, could it have caused that much damage on land. >> it could, but iquique gets hit often. in 2010, they got hit with an 8.9. and it could take the all-time

earthquake ever measured. it was a 9.5 magnitude, that was in 1986 in chile farther to the south. but you have that down going ocean plate, and there are many earthquakes, as many in chile as anywhere in the world. >> it appears that we're watching video from somewhere inside of a building in chile, possibly during the earthquake there. and you say that there have been some rumblings going on over the last couple of weeks in that area. is that right? >> . >> yes, there have been, and we're still having them from 2010. it keeps causing earthquakes for years there. but there's a new event. 78.0 magnitude. some are saying 7.7, and no matter what, it will settle out to an area where a significant

tsunami can be generated. >> when you talk about a significant tsunami, what do you mean? >> the ones where they come onshore enough to cause damage to buildings and kill people. we're talking about 7.7, 7.5 is kind of the cut off line, and above that, tsunami if possible, if the ocean floor moves and transmits a lot of energy into the water column. >> how long does it take for a tsunami to get going like this, and how long would it take to reach the shore based on the fact that it's 60 miles offshore >> it would be a number of minutes, and it would depend on the direction that the fault moves. but it would be quite a number of minutes. a lot of chilean fishermen are used to feeling the earthquake and getting out in their boats, and if you can get far enough out into the deep see, the tsunami is not going to affect you. but it's a qualitative amount of

time. time enough for a lot of the fishermen to get out to sea and avoid it. >> we're told that about 500,000 people could be in the area of a possible tsunami if it takes place. and our kevin is standing by with more on this location. >> here it is off the coast of chile right here. peru is just to the north. and what i want to talk about what we can expect for the tsunami. we are receiving information that a tsunami was generated and of course the places that we'll see it first are closest and that's on the coast of chile. but looking at the timing, this is what we use here in the area in terms of where we'll see it. first of all, in chile. some of the cities have already seen it, and then we'll be talking about cities in peru and the coastline, and also, we'll be concerned about ecuador to

the north. and columbia is also in the area. and we're talking about 3 and a half to four hours from now, and that's how long it's going to take to travel up the coastline of the area, and also fan ma and "consider this." so we have six countries on the eastern pacific rim that we'll be watching, and of course this will be updated from the u.s. gs as we go through the next couple of hours. >> kevin, stand by. we want to bring in jake ward, our science and technology correspondent. and jake, talk to us more about the area and the so-called ring of fire that we heard about. >> sure, jon, the ring of fire is home to 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes, and they extend the circumference of the pacific. including japan, where we see terrible earthquakes all the way through california, where i'm

now down and down to chile where this has taken place. chile is the center of the seismic activity. the world's most powerful earthquake, a 9.5, struck there in 1960, killing 5,000 people. and it's a hotbed of seismic activity. and it's not a huge surprise that we would see big action here, but the trouble is, it's so hard to predict these. >> stand by, we have pat abbot on the phone. there has been an 8.0 quake off of the coast of chile. there's a tsunami warning and some reports that a tsunami has been generated as a result of this. also, the ebola outbreak, dozens dead in africa, and we'll head

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>> welcome back, we're following breaking news, massive earthquake off the coast of chile. an 8.0 magnitude quake, off of the northern coast, 50 miles northwest of iquique, chile. a tsunami warning is in effect for chile and peru and ecuador. joining us, a geology professor at san diego state university. and pat, we have heard that the tsunami has formed in the sense that we're getting waves 6 feet higher than normal waves in

areas, and could that be the beginning or just the production of what happened with this quake? >> well, that's not the main thing we're waiting for for these things. the main thing is the storms going on right now. and the tsunamis are famous for a lot of times, me come in sometimes, and other times, directly. and that doesn't sound like the waves are directly related but it's early to know what's going to come in with the tsunamis. mind you, this is not going to be as big as japan three years ago, not something of that size, but we're talking about significant potential fun theless. >> what about the tsunami that hit india and sri lanka, not that size either? >> no. both of those were 9 earthquakes and the maximum we're dealing with is 8. which is significant, but it's

20 times smaller than those 9s. >> and yet still could do damage. >> definitely. you described this area as a basin or bay that's very susceptible to a tsunami, right. >> indeed, it has an opening going into it, and an almost circular bay, and that's the kind of thing where tsunamis rise to the greatest height to the narrow entrance, and then stack up inside of the bay. >> we heard a couple of reports out west in california, and in quake, how many quakes occur in the world during a given day? >> oh, lots and lots of them. it's very interesting, some of the displays and the computer things that you can in realtime see the blasts of light showing the earthquakes in the world. and you can run it for years and

years and years, including the present. you see generally the same amount of earthquakes and it's just where they're located. the things that catch our attention are when they hit populated areas, so when you think about it, 71% of the earth's surface is ocean, and a lot of the lands aren't occupied. and when you look at the world, they're evenly distributed and they catch our attention. >> even an 8.0 magnitude quake? >> we only get one to three of those per year, and there are not that many of those. >> so this is a rare event to say the least. >> oh, definitely. it's a rare event. it's significant. it may be classified 7.8 or 7.7, and it takes awhile for people to go over the records and sort them out. but it's a very significant earthquake. >> pat abbot, thank you so much

for sharing your e expertise. and kevin corbett is standing by. >> the interface is fairly well. and they put the fault line to the west. the fault line is moving 7 per year. and it's an active ring of fire. we're talking about chile is the closest to where the earthquake is centered. and just to the north, we get into the area of peru. and they say that just about 21 minutes past the hour is when we should start to see the area right here on the southern border, to see the first signs of the tsunami, and then we make our way up here to the north, up here towards ecuador, and they are saying that ecuador, if there was a tsunami generated, it would probably be two hours

after the first area. so it's going to take while for any of the tsunami activity to make its way up to the north. but we're going to be watching it very carefully. and again, one of the problems, it's a very shallow area in this particular area, and it's still preliminary, at 8.0 offshore chile, and 10.6 miles just with the depth there. >> i don't know if we can pull that part of the screen down, if not, maybe we can pull it back later. but i want to talk to you about the fault line. jake ward is our science and technology expert. and jake, we talked about what could be the size of this tsunami, and pat saying that it would not be as big as the tsunami in japan. but obviously varying types when it might hit along the coast, right? >> well, it's like as kevin mentioned, we're looking at probably the arrival of waves in peru in the next few minutes if

it were to happen, hit "consider this" in several hours from now. as professor abon the wa abbot g out, this is a rare repeat. but we were just talking to seismologists this week, in california's efforts to try to predict earthquakes and get out in front of them, the way that japan has been so good at doing, and it's very hard to know how big earthquakes can be because the human race has not been on the earth very long. we don't live a terribly long time. we have only been seriously studying earthquakes for 50 years. so we would like to know what a big earthquake looks like, and we don't. though this is a rare event, truly big and apocalyptic

earthquakes haven't takenmation in our lifetimes. >> joining us on the phone is lucia newman from santiago, chile, and it's about 9:00 in the evening, and wha what are yu hearing? >> we're seeing peopling evacuated, and people rushing to get as far away from the coast as possible in the north of chile, in fact, the whole coastline, but especially in the north, in the cities of iquique, and all of the port cities, they have given the alert. and we're hearing that a large wave around 2 meters long is already starting to hit the northern village. they have said that the first wave is usually the smallest. so it's an indication that the sea surge is increasing rapidly.

they expect the wave to hit the coast in about two hours time. >> . >> are you still there, lewis 'a? >> i thought you dropped out. >> . >> what did you miss. >> i wanted to ask wha people ft on the ground. >> they felt everything shake and move. but here in chile, we're used it that. it shakes and moves all the time. anything under 5 or 6 on the richter scale is considered more of a tremor man an earthquake, but this is a much stronger tremor, and it's a full-fledged earthquake. so people felt their cars lift them up and drop them down again. blue the biggest fright right now for the people closest to the epicenter is the tsunami. >> yes, and go back again to a little bit of the description of

what you see as far as waves coming onto the coast. >> they haven't seen anything yet, john. they have been told and it's on television that a 2-meter wave is approaching the town in the north of chile, it's near the bigger cities of iquique that are more populated. and that's an indication that the wave surgery is increasing, and the authorities are saying, not to take chances. though 2 meters is not that high. in yards, that's 2 and a half yards, it's not that high, but they do remind people that that is just the beginning. that usually it starts with a small wave and it gets much bigger. >> are they warning people to move away from the coast? >> absolutely, i mean the evacuation order has been in place since the earthquake struck. there are sirens going off, and it's now very dark, but people

who are still near the coast are racing away to get as far away, not necessarily upland, not uphill because it's a very flat area, it's desert area, but as far away from the coast as possible. >> we have been told that there are evacuation orders for the northern coast of chile. >> yes, that's the hardest-hit area, the northern coast, which is near the epicenter. and the earth has been shaking and the tremors have been taking place for the last month. and everybody was very concerned that this was justort apply preo a full-fledged earthquake and they were right. >> lucia, thank you. and kevin has more. >> yes, john, we just got an update from the tsunami, they put out an update.

and they have changed the magnitude. normally, when you get a preliminary magnitude, it fends to go down, but now, from 8.0, it's a preliminary 8.2. and we have wave heights that are saying that in southern peru, it's not really an extreme, but they're saying 1.7 feet here, and they have one that says 6.9 on the coast of northern chile, so now we're feeling the effects, not just here, but the southern coast of peru, will be seeing those in the next hour, so we'll be watching this like i said. we need to keep up with the bull tans because they come out in intervals. >> they're calling it an 8.2? >> yes, it's an 8.2. >> stand by, we will continue, and i want to go back to jake ward. clearly, this was felt on land,

but the major concern, jake, is having people flee for their safety because of a tsunami. >> yes, john, there's a long cultural history build into the fabric of chilean history. these seismic events. the 1868 earthquake in the town of arica, it was an estimated 8.5 to 9.0, and it was a devastating event, sending a tsunami deep inland. prior tsunamis have moved warships hundreds of meters inland from where they have been moored off the coast. and there's in fact a long history of this thing. it's a function of this being one of the most active parts of the ring of fire, and the incredible power of the earth, which we're seeing here. >> all right, jake ward, thank

you very much. and kevin corriveaux, and lucia newman, we'll get back to this story in a moment. as the warnings come across. but we have other news to tell you about as well. there's no vaccine or cure for the ebola virus, and an outbreak in africa has affected at least 123 people. 80 people have died in guinea's capital. and they have suspected cases in senegal and liberia and i sierra leone. monkeys and pigs can catch and spread ebola. and the fruit bat carries it. that has a huge range across africa and are southern asia. so there's concern that the disease could spread in many

different ways. scientists for the center for disease and prevention have called in to help in west africa, and robert ray is at the cdc in atlanta with more on that. robert. >> john, good evening. there are two more scientists headed to on the country of liberia and western africa, and there are already five scientists on ground. and they got word over the weekend and the who. they got on a plight and arrived monday night. earlier today, we spoke 20 one of the lead scientists in the building behind me, dr. nickel, and he told us where the origins of the ebola virus come from, and here's what he has to say. >> the questions that we hear frequently, why are we seeing this virus in west africa in and i think this refers to the bats as the likely reservoir.

bats are highly more mobile. and the virus can actually be present throughout a of broader area of africa than was previously known, based on just where the previous outbreaks have occurred. >> john, these fruit bats have a wide range, as you mentioned earlier, all over africa for that matter. what scientists are concerned about is the fact that the bats can come over these fruit and vegetable markets, defecate on the produce, and then the human beings purchase them and eat them and they are affected without knowing that. and it's a situation that the cdc and others are trying to monitor, john. >> so other than tracking the bats, what else are the cdc experts going to be doing there? >> on the ground today, they met with the health industry in guinea and they met with the who and clinics, and makeshift

situations. the western part of africa hasn't seen an outbreak of ebola in 20 years, and these are the people that are not used to this. they want to realize that if they come in contact with someone infected, their saliva, tears coming from their eyes, could transmit human to human. this is not airborne, but the cdc wants to make medical officials communicate just the severity of the situation this. >> it is not officially considered an epidemic yet. but talk about how it spread, and what the chances are of it reaching those epidemic levels. >> exactly, it's not an epidemic. it's a major outbreak. the numbers are not huge as we have seen in the past like the congo and uganda in years past. at this point, we have 80 people who have passed away. and over 120 cases of infection, and this is again not an airborne virus.

this cannot be spread from human to human, but it's impossible to know if you have it. it was discovered in january, and it continues to tick upwards, crossing borders, and that's the biggest discern, jon. >> robert ray, thank you very much. and we are keeping our eye on the breaking news out of chile. there's a tsunami warning. and we'll have more on this story right after the break.

>> good evening, i'm meteorologist, kevin corriveaux. and tomorrow, the situations will be across the central planes, let me show you what's happening here. we'll be seeing a lot more in the atmosphere. and anywhere you see the areas of green, now, the temperatures are not going to be as warm as what we'll be seeing later on in the week. little rock, 70° here, and it's down on the coast. and those temperatures are beginning to come up. as you see, as we go to thursday, this is the area we're really concerned about, as this very untable air begins to move to the mississippi valley. that's going to be a problem, but the temperatures, jackson, 81, and notice as they begin to

warm up, as we go to april, this is a problem. we have mixed this weather. but april is sure to show more signs of damaging winds and tornadoes. now, wednesday, not too bad in terms of temperatures, but we'll see a lot of rain, and the temperatures will be dropping later on. that's the look at the national weather and the news is now.

>> and welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler, and we're following breaking news. a massive earthquake off of the coast of chile. 8.2 magnitude. it was reported off of the coast of northern chile, off of the coast of iquique and a tsunami warning is in effect for chile, peru and ecuador. you're watching videos in conception chile, with the evacuations, and there's a man

providing sign language for the people in that area. but there has been a tsunami warning, and they are urging people to evacuation. and we're seeing traffic congestion as people try to get out of this area. kevin corrivou has been helping me, and what's the latest in. >> well, jon, we have not gotten any more tsunami warnings, but this is the south american plate here, and there is the earthquake, and it was u upgradd to 8.2, but what's going on here, this is the mate that moves up up and over the south american plate. and normally it moves 7 the millimeters a year. it's just to the east between the fault line and the west coast of chile. here's the border area of peru, and they have already seen waves

extending up to the southern parts of peru. they put out these bulletins, and they have a whole list of cities that are potentially available to be seeing this tsunami. so we go down here and look at the times, and we have seen the heights of the waves along the coast here, but they're looking at chile, peru, ecuador, columbia and panama and "consider this" being affected along the coast as we go up to this particular area. >> all right, kevin, thank you very much. let's hear what she has to say. >> what we're seeing, jon, is peopling evacuated, and people rushing to get as far way from the coast in chile, and in fact, the whole coastline is 4,000 miles long, as you know.

but in iquique, and all of the port cities, the people have been give the alert and we're hearing now from the authorities that a large wave, around 2 meters long, is starting to hit the northern village of kisaua. and they say that the first wave is the smallest, so the surgery is increasing rapidly. and they expect the wave to hit the coast in about two hours time. this is where she's talking about. and clearly want traffic is a big concern. and jake ward, as lucia said, the people of chile are used to rumblings, and used to

earthquakes but not an 8.2 that could clearly cause damage with the tsunami. >> that's right, john. the history of chile does give us insight. the town of iquique has been hit by a very similar event. back in 1868, the town was hit by an 8.5, and that earthquake caused almost the complete introduction of that town, along with many others on the coastline, and caused almost 25,000 casualties. this is a time when no seismic standards were in place, and the buildings were fragile and the people had almost no warning. so it's the shall good precedent that we had. there was incredible devastation station, there's historical precedent. but it's not in the living memory of these people. >> i don't know if you know

about the highway system in that coastal area, but clearly getting people out of the coastal region is going to be a huge problem. >> this is the main concern of any civic leader on the ground in the moment. and i think that the desperate way that you see people driving suggests how panicked i'm sure everybody is, but what we want to bring up, the infrastructure is a problem, even in the united states we have tried to create an early warning system for the residents to have a few seconds warning before an earthquake strikes, and really, the only country with a reliable system is japan, who see ten times more earthquake than in the united states. they have been able to create a system that sets off your phone seconds or minutes before the shocks begin to reach you, but all of us wish there was a way to predict earthquakes, that the

300 or so small earthquakes that we have seen would somehow give us a warning that at this time, at this hour, an earthquake would take place, but it doesn't work that way. it's really random and all you can hope for are a few seconds, and certainly this country doesn't have that. >> thank you very much, and those pictures, clearly someone inside of their apartment experiencing that earthquake when it happened. we understand that landslides took place in the area as a result of the quake, and it may take two hours for this tsunami to reach the coast. we're continuing to follow this story, and we're following them on the of chile where a powerful earthquake has hit and prompted evacuations along the northern coast of chile. we'll be back with more after this break.

>> welcome to aljazeera america, i'm richelle carey and here are the top stories. we're following breaking news off of the coast of chile tonight. a powerful 8.2 magnitude earthquake has been reported off of the northern coast of the

country. 50 miles off of santiago. so here the video that we have of the congestion and people trying to get out and reports of landslides and tsunami warnings. and kevin corriveau, what do you know? >> this warning center puts out the times that we expect to see the tsunami make its way up the coast as well as down the coast. of course now in chile, we're seeing tsunami waves here on the southern coast. and in a couple of hours, it will be ecuador that will be seeing the area, and then collumbya and panama and "consider this,"considercostaril see more coming through. >> in other news, president obama said more than 7 million people have sign under for health insurance online by last

night's dead line and that meet the original white house goal. can you get the latest news online at aljazeera.com. and we'll continue to keep an eye on the aftermath of that earthquake and tsunami. ♪ on "america tonight," deadly defect. general motor accused of hiding a serious safety problem as one mother seeks answers, congress puts gm in the hot seat. >> in other words, there is no commitment to share the full report? >> i am saying i will share what is appropriate. >> i hear the answer. >> also tonight, pieces of the puzzle. what can we learn about flight 370 from the inside out? the anatomy of a malaysia airline's boeing 777. >> you can see if this is in