" LATEST: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded has struck Chile, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean - roughly a quarter of the globe. » Tsunami alert for New Zealand's east coast Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about by the magnitude-8.8 quake as if shaken by a giant. At least 147 people were killed, according to Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Agency. The quake shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil - 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east. About 13 million people live in the area where shaking was strong to severe, according to the US Geological Survey. In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence. The historic centre of town largely collapsed, but most of the buildings of adobe mud and straw were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34am (1:34am EST, 0634 GMT) quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters. Collapsed roads and bridges complicated north-south travel in the narrow Andean nation. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas - meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas. In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly. The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile, then raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga. Tahitian officials banned all traffic on roads less than 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the sea and people in several low-lying island nations were urged to find higher ground. The first waves were expected to hit Hawaii after 11am (4pm EST; 2100 GMT) and measure roughly 8 feet (2.5 meters) at Hilo. Officials evacuated people and boats near the water and closed shore-side Hilo International Airport. " Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3384288/Chile-in-chaos-after-massive-earthquake Will let you guys know how big the tsunami was when it hits here (I live right near the coast in the Bay Of Plenty NZ Thoughts are with the people of Chile - I've been in a shallow 6.8 quake when i was a tot and while the damage was massive, there were no fatalities.
The big one in 2004 set of a whole string of quakes, anything upto 6 on the scale, the Haitian quake also set off quakes globally. An 8.8 is very likely to trigger some pretty big quakes, and there's already been 2 cat 7 quakes south of Japan and loads of cat 5's around Chile Sam
I don't know if its just me. But people don't seem to be so OMG EARTHQUAKE HELP THEM!!111!!11! Because Haiti has just passed... Is it me or.. People wont donate/help so much because they just have? Just sharing my opinion.
Yea it's something like disaster apathy. People get bored of it and need a certain amount of time to recharge their morals. Sad really.
It did? AFAIK there's no evidence that even the largest earthquakes trigger others around the world in regions with completely different stress regimes. Although you are right in saying that the 2004 Indian Ocean quake set others off, but that was due to the release of stress in that area of the fault plane, which was then transferred further along the same fault. Earthquakes are still very poorly understood in general though.
Could you share your sources for this? Especially about the Haitian quake triggering earthquakes globally, I'm surprised I haven't heard about that. I'd like to know more! The magnitude 5 (and even a handful of 6-es) in Chile are all in the region of the mainshock and are probably all aftershocks. While magnitude 6 aftershocks are pretty impressive, they are to be expected after what is in the top 10 of biggest earthquakes known in history. Big earthquakes being triggered thousands of miles away are unlikely, in my opinion. While the scientific community is still debating triggered earthquakes, the consensus is that: 1) Quakes induce stress changes along a fault. Sometimes, these stress changes cause earthquakes a bit further along this fault, or in the same region (say a few hundred km). Usually this stress transfer takes months or years, but it can result in earthquakes of about the same magnitude as the one that 'caused' it. The classic example of this is what is happening along the North Anatolian fault in Turkey, with the quakes slowly progressing westward over the decades. 2) Big quakes produce massive vibrations that propagate through the earth. While these vibrations are not strong enough to really influence the crust at big distances, they can move around fluids in eg. volcanic regions. An example of this is the earthquake swarm in Yellowstone that followed the Alaska earthquake in 2002. So either big quakes triggered in the immediate vicinity of the original one, years later, or small quakes (due to hydrothermal activity) immediately after a big one thousands of km away. AFAIK there is no convincing evidence of big quakes triggered by other big quakes far away. Sorry about the lecture, you could say I'm interested in this subject Yeah, I think this is generally true But in this case it looks like it will be okay, Chile is well prepared for earthquakes. They learned that the hard way, by being hit by some of the biggest quakes recorded. The result is that they have strict building codes and a well organized rescue system. So well organized, in fact, that the president indicated that they won't be needing international help yet. Still, my heart goes out to the people there. It must be horrible to lose the roof over your head and the stable ground under your feet. For those interested, there are some decent articles about the situation in Chile on the nytimes. Here and here.
