The tsunami unleashed by a massive 8.8 magnitude quake off Chile has killed at least four people and left 11 others missing on the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet sent two aid ships, two helicopters and a plane to the small archipelago of some 600 inhabitants more than 700 kilometres offshore in the Pacific Ocean.

The casualties were confirmed by Ivan de la Masa, the governor of Valparaiso, the nearest city on the Chilean mainland.

A huge wave measuring 2.34 metres crashed onto the Chilean coastal town of Talcahuano just after the quake struck.

The quake has left at least 214 people dead, though officials warned the toll could rise.

A team of French marine archaeologists working in the archipelago on the wreck of a Spanish galleon could not immediately be reached despite several attempts to contact them.

Their leader Arnaud Cazenave de la Roche spoke by telephone to AFP earlier this week.

The Robinson Crusoe islands get their name from the hero of Daniel Defoe's novel, whose adventures were based on those of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor marooned there in real life by his captain in 1704.

-AFP/Reuters