A moderate earthquake rattled Argentina early Saturday, the US Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said in a statement.
The magnitude-5.5 quake, located 27 kilometers (17 miles) south-southeast of Mendoza, Argentina and 190 kilometers (118 miles) east-northeast of Santiago, Chile, struck at a depth of 22 kilometers (14 miles) at 1403 GMT, the USGS said.
The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.
Earthquakes measuring 5 to 5.9 are considered moderate, and there are an estimated 1,300 such quakes a year, according to the USGS.
