Big Aftershocks Got Everyone's Attention - Info 2

The University of Chile's list of feelable earthquakes reported so far today since the big aftershock and it's only 4:30 p.m. and we are in the midst of another good one!

Big Aftershocks Got Everyone's Attention - Map 1

USGS map of the first two of the three big aftershocks today (11 March 2010), originally reported to be 7.2, 6.9 and 6.1 and later revised to 6.9, 6.7 and 6.1.

Big Aftershocks Got Everyone's Attention - Info 3

Revised USGS list of the 12 aftershocks that we have had today, 11 March 2010 and it's only 4:00 p.m. local time!

Big Aftershocks Got Everyone's Attention

Hi All;

We just experienced our first big aftershocks in our Santiago apartment. It was more than enough to get everyone's attention, bringing all the neighbors to their apartment doors just in case we needed to leave the building. The doors rattled, lamps swayed, glasses tingled, and it lasted quite a while - those tectonic plates certainly are readjusting themselves. We were fine, just nervous again! There were two really good size quakes with milder tremors in between...in fact, it was almost hard to tell where one stopped and another started....and then another moderate quake.

We immediately started trying to call our daughter, Skye, who is with her boyfriend on the coast in Zapallar today, but could not get a connection. It turned out that she could not get a connection through to us either. We finally got a hold of her 2 hours later. Skye and Todd didn't feel the quake, but were near the top of an almost island off the coast when the emergency siren went off for about 30 seconds at almost exactly noon. Skye thought it might be a noon whistle, but when they finished climbing to the top of the island they were able to see police cars and other emergency vehicles with lights and sirens. They quickly figured out that it had been a tsunami warning and began assessing whether they were on ground high enough to be out of reach of a possible tsunami. The police evacuated the restaurants along the beach and Skye and Todd sat tight. But when the police came back checking again nearly half an hour later, they sprinted down the island peninsula and directly up a nearby road to higher ground. A man offered them a ride and he took them up to a gas station near the main highway and well out of reach of any possible local tsunami. So Todd, too, is getting a full taste of the Chilean experience.

There were three strong aftershocks amidst intermittent and occasionally nearly constant mild tremors. They hit during the swearing-in ceremony of the new president, Pinera. The USGS originally listed them at 7.2, 6.9 and 6.1 (Haiti was 7.0), but Dick just said that they have now been downgraded to 6.9, 6.7 and 6.1. Way more than enough for me! Rest assured that we are all fine and thankful that we live in a quality building with anti-seismic design.

Take care,

Cheryl

Amazing Plate Movement and Other Interesting Facts!

Some of the statistics about the big 8.8 earthquake and the plate movement associated with it are incredible. The city of Concepcion moved about 10 FEET to the west. Santiago (240 miles from the epicenter) moved 11 INCHES SSW and Buenos Aires, Brazil which is more than 1100 km (approx. 700 miles ) from the epicenter moved an INCH. For a great map of these movements, click on this map by researchers at the University of Hawaii. For more info, see the article in Science Daily.

This quake also slowed the earth's rotation on its axis and may have tipped the axis. See this article for an explanation and the numbers. The power of earth's processes is truly incredible, but then that is why Chile has such spectacular scenery - the high Andes mountain peaks, azure glacial lakes, snow-covered symmetrical volcanoes, deep fjords in the south, high desert plateaus in the north, majestic sea cliffs, etc.

To put the power of the 8.8 quake in perspective: at 15.8 gigatons of energy, it was 500,000 times bigger than the Nagasaki atom bomb (31.6 kiloton), 500 times bigger than the 2010 Haiti quake (31.6 megatons), 16 times bigger than the 1906 San Francisco quake (1 gigaton) (thankfully everyone has learned a lot about construction since then!), and 11 times smaller than the 1960 Valdivia, Chile quake (178 gigatons) which released about 20% of the earth's energy in the last 100 years. For some interesting comparative charts including one of the damage caused by earthquakes of various magnitudes, to Wikipedia's article on the Richter scale.

Aid for Chile

Many have asked what they can do to help. The outpouring of support has been heartwarming. Hillary Clinton visited on Tuesday, bringing 25 satellite phones and promising additional aid in the form of field hospitals, pontoon bridges, etc. Chile Ayuda a Chile, a fundraising telethon, has surpassed their goal to raise $15 billion pesos ($7.5 million USD) with much international support, especially from artists and musicians. If you are able, please contribute to any reliable international aid organization with a program to help Chile. Chileans are a hard working people and it is remarkable how they are already moving forward.

Santiago Recap

Facade pieces still hanging six days later from a big department store on our street.

The damage in Santiago reminds us that earthquakes are fickle, with the damage depending largely on the quality of construction, the geology below a structure, and the angle at which the waves arrive. Several overpasses in Santiago collapsed, while others that appear identical, remain standing and in use. A major new tunnel less than 2 miles from us collapsed and two new apartment buildings near us were structurally damaged and will have to be torn down. People in Chile generally buy their apartments, so the loss will be felt by individual families, rather than big corporations. Many people near the epicenter are now homeless with a rough road ahead of them. We hope the recovery goes well. Our girls are helping a school effort to collect blankets and towels to send to the south and Sterling's workshop is packing up soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and shampoo care packages.

School has been cancelled for the week and will restart in Santiago on March 8th. Santiago will be well into recovery by next week, but Concepción and much of the south will take years to recover. After seeing the devastation here, it makes a winter storm in Binghamton seem quite manageable. In spite of the earthquake we plan to remain in Chile until next August enjoying this beautiful country with its friendly people and appealing culture.