Export thread

Massive earthquake in Chile

#1

Troll

Troll

Geez, it's been a crazy year for natural disasters.

SANTIAGO, Chile – A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake, capable of tremendous damage, struck southern Chile early Saturday, shaking buildings in the capital, where some buildings collapsed. A tsunami warning was issued.

The quake hit 197 miles (317 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Santiago, and at a depth of 36.9 miles (59.4 kilometers) at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT; 1:34 a.m. EST), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Its epicenter was just 75 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.

Buildings shook and collapsed in Santiago. Phone lines were down in the country, making confirmation of damage difficult, especially further south toward the epicenter. The quake was felt in Argentina as well.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Chile and Peru, and a less-urgent tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica.

\\"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,\\" the center said.

The U.S. west coast tsunami warning center said it did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada but was continuing to monitor the situation.
Click to expand...
Quoted from the AP news story that can be found here.

So, will people be able to send as much support to Chile as they did to Haiti? Or are we "tapped out," so to speak? Will Chile need the same level of assistance?


#2



YAOMTC

Here's Reuters' article as well, and one from Al Jazeera English.

Also, here is another article about a past earthquake off the west coast of South America creating a tsunami, which caused damage as far as Hawaii.


#3

PatrThom

PatrThom

Crazy year? Heck, it's been a crazy day. First the quake in Japan, then the one in Chile. Who's next? Somalia or Hawaii (either of which is halfway between Japan and Chile, depending on how you measure)? Or maybe New Zealand or Alaska (which are both at the third point of a triangle drawn through the first two)? Or are the Sandwich Islands about to blow up?

I'll be checking the news a lot for the next few days.

--Patrick


#4

bhamv3

bhamv3

8.8? Holy crap! Even Haiti's was just 7.0...

Good luck to everyone there, man. I'll see if I can donate some cash their way.


#5



KenjiFinster

I live in Santiago. And yes, it was crazy as fuck. I've never seen anything shake so hard.
Still have no power, landlines are mostly down, cell service is patchy and I have 3G internet by a miracle.
I'm just going to have to re-shingle the roof here, but there is chaos in other places. A couple of bridges went down (one in a main highway), the international airport is closed, and the damage seems to be colossal in Concepcion, Curicó and Temuco (about 200-300mi south). It also seems that there was a small tsunami in the Juan Fernandez archipelago.

Seriosuly, I could use some sleep now.


#6

bhamv3

bhamv3

Jeez, man... good luck with everything down there. Hope it all works out.

Just... holy crap...


#7

Dave

Dave

Luckily, Chile's infrastructure is MUCH better suited to withstand this sort of thing. 8.8 is a nearly unimaginable magnitude but very few buildings have collapsed. Yes, at least 52 people have died, but considering the strength this could have been much, much worse.

Kenji, stay safe man!


#8

Rob King

Rob King

Chile knows about earthquakes. Wasn't the strongest earthquake on record in Chile?

Thank god that they have the infrastructure to deal with this kind of stuff. Less than one hundred people dead? That's incredible!


#9

Espy

Espy

Wow! I can't believe how well they dealt with it! Impressive. Stay safe Kenji!


#10



Chazwozel

Dave said:
Luckily, Chile's infrastructure is MUCH better suited to withstand this sort of thing. 8.8 is a nearly unimaginable magnitude but very few buildings have collapsed. Yes, at least 52 people have died, but considering the strength this could have been much, much worse.

Kenji, stay safe man!
Click to expand...
The Ande's mountains are pretty much the result of tectonic plate subjugation (right word?), similar to how the Himalaya's where created. Doesn't Chili get lots of quakes as a result?


#11



Chibibar

Chazwozel;347088][QUOTE=Dave said:
Luckily, Chile's infrastructure is MUCH better suited to withstand this sort of thing. 8.8 is a nearly unimaginable magnitude but very few buildings have collapsed. Yes, at least 52 people have died, but considering the strength this could have been much, much worse.

Kenji, stay safe man!
Click to expand...
The Ande's mountains are pretty much the result of tectonic plate subjugation (right word?), similar to how the Himalaya's where created. Doesn't Chili get lots of quakes as a result?[/QUOTE]

Still... 8.8 is pretty dang high that is consider great while 10 is epic. I am glad the infrastructure and building are made to be "earthquake resistance" or it could have been much much worst. While Haiti only had 7.0, most of their buildings are substandard (being poor nation) and thus a lot of death (that is what I read/hear)


#12



Alucard

Bit worried since my dad is flying right now to Japan for a business trip.


#13



darkangel6988

My friend's sister lives in Hawaii and her island is about to get with a Tsunami.....Scary ! :(


#14

IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Stay safe, Kenji.

I woke up at 4:30 to a news report that there was a tsunami warning in Hawaii. We packed quickly and were ready as soon as the sirens started blaring. My roommate and I are crashing at his friend's place right now. It's nice to know people who live at the penthouse level in their apartment building. We're still in Waikiki but things will be fine as long as we're up high. And the tsunami probably won't be higher than 2 feet here in Oahu.


#15



KenjiFinster

I'm fine here. Still without power (Hooked the lappy, the TV and the cell to the house next door and 100ft of wire), landline and cell voice service (Cell data works by a miracle or something).
They are showing video of a ship stuck in the middle of Talcahuano (near the epi) and 2 big building issues:
One in Santiago that sunk (bad construction)

and one in Concepción that fell sideways


There are cities in the south that were completely flattened, and we've had more than 30 aftershocks today.

Right now is getting dark. We don't know what will happen tomorrow yet.
BTW, how is Hawaii doing?


#16

Espy

Espy

Holy cow


#17

Gusto

Gusto

Holy fuck.


#18



Koko

Heard a tsunami warning here in San Diego from the Chilean earthquake.


#19

IronBrig4

IronBrig4

KenjiFinster said:
BTW, how is Hawaii doing?
Click to expand...
Big Island was hit by four waves, the largest of which was three feet tall. My island (Oahu) wasn't hit by anything. There has been no reported damage or casualties. In fact, the "all clear" sounded less than an hour ago. It looks like everything is back to normal.


#20



KenjiFinster

Picture gallery here
Even the tallest building in Santiago has serious damage (Picture 42)


#21



KenjiFinster


This is one of the ships stuck in downtown Talcahuano.


#22



Chronos[Ha-G]

IronBrig4;347167][QUOTE=KenjiFinster said:
BTW, how is Hawaii doing?
Click to expand...
Big Island was hit by four waves, the largest of which was three feet tall. My island (Oahu) wasn't hit by anything. There has been no reported damage or casualties. In fact, the "all clear" sounded less than an hour ago. It looks like everything is back to normal.[/QUOTE]

Yesterday, I passed through my living room and saw my parents watching a live broadcast from a beach somewhere on Hawaii. On the bottom, it just said something to the effect of "Tsunami imminent: waves could start any moment". I purposefully didn't watch, because I realized how much of a pull for ratings it was, but my parents kept watching. An hour later, they commented on how it just started - all that and the biggest wave was only 3 feet? Stupid television.

(Note: I'm not attempting to trivialize this. "Only 3 feet!? It shoulda been much worse, so it would've been more exciting!" is not what I'm going for here.)


#23

Rob King

Rob King

As un-worrisome as three feet is, I think it's incredible that an earth quake hundreds of kilometers away can produce a measurable effect in Hawaii.


#24

Dave

Dave

7.2 earthquake just reported from Chile. Holy shit those poor people!


#25

Calleja

Calleja

they haven't stopped with the aftershocks, it's something like 10 big ones a day. Shit.


#26

Gusto

Gusto

Jesus!


#27

Chippy

Chippy

Time to rename the country to Salsa.


#28

Rob King

Rob King

Apparently that's not strange. In Haiti, I had heard that they were still getting > 5.0 aftershocks as late as mid-February.


#29

Dave

Dave

But 7.2? Holy hell that's still BIGGER than the Haiti quake!


#30

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Jesus. Hope you're doing okay, Kenji! You ain't alone. Halforum's with ya, good buddy.


#31

Calleja

Calleja

Chile knows about quakes. The highest EVER recorded Quake, something like 9.6 (too lazy to look up the exact figure) was in Chile. 7.2 IS pretty big, but with countries who are used to it it's not really that high. Mexico City has had 7.6 quakes that people working on skyscrapers don't even feel.

8.8, though, that's too effing big.


#32

Rob King

Rob King

Dave said:
But 7.2? Holy hell that's still BIGGER than the Haiti quake!
Click to expand...
Right. But so was the initial earthquake.

I'm not trying to dismiss it or anything. I'm just saying that aftershocks can occur many weeks after the initial 'quake. Truthfully, that's an extra source of concern. And it can't be easy on the people on the ground.

"Okay, the massive 'holy-fuck' of an earthquake is done. Now we've got a month of weaker but still shit-inducing quakes to worry about."


#33

Calleja

Calleja

Again, Chile is more than well prepared for any Quakes on the under 8.0 arena. I'm not saying we should then dismiss them, but that 7.2 is no big deal to them at all.


#34

Rob King

Rob King

If earthquakes were alcohol, and nation states were people, Chile could drink an Irish dockworker under the table. Is that what you're saying?


#35

Calleja

Calleja

Exactly. Chile would drink a Russian alcoholic-bear-puncher to death and keep on asking for more shots.


Top