Rescue teams hunted for survivors on Sunday after one of the largest earthquakes on record killed at least 300 people in Chile and sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean.
In an address to the nation on Saturday, President Michelle Bachelet said two million Chileans had been affected but, after touring the worst-hit areas by plane, she found it hard to spell out the magnitude of the disaster.
"The power of nature has again struck our country," Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile's 15 regions catastrophe zones in the aftermath of the 8.8-magnitude quake.
Highways in the South American nation of 16 million were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the earthquake struck at pre-dawn hours on Saturday about 325km southwest of the capital Santiago.
"This is a catastrophe of immense proportions, so it will be very difficult to give precise figures," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said. Officials later said at least 300 people had been killed.
Waves well over two metres high crashed into the Chilean coast after the quake struck at 3.34am (0634 GMT, 1730 AEDT) and tore out into the Pacific, killing at least five people in the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.
In the Chilean port of Talcahuano, trawlers were sent shooting inland to the town square where they lay oddly marooned next to abandoned cars.
The total value of economic damage caused by the quake is likely to range between $US15 billion ($A16.88 billion) and $US30 billion ($A33.77 billion), a US risk modelling firm predicted.
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