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Chile and my obsessive earthquake watch

Remember when I was writing about how I get USGS notifications of earthquakes?  Remember when I reported that I didn’t want to move to the west coast of South America?  Today, I’m glad we didn’t ignore my trepidation and hook up the old U-Haul.

Chile’s 8.8 quake is 500 times more energy released than the 7.0 quake that shook apart Haiti.  It is about twice the depth of the Haitian earthquake which is a good thing...but on a scale of <0 to 10, 8.8 is a mighty shake.  The tsunami warnings are all over the Pacific Ocean, even here in Washington we have a tsunami advisory, on the ocean coast and in Puget Sound.  (see the difference between a tsunami warning and a tsunami advisory)

Today my earthquake obsession peaked when I opened my email inbox:

click for larger clearer view

Do you see that?  At 9:25am Pacific time, in the about 9 hours since the 8.8 quake, Chile has had twelve 5.5 or greater aftershocks.  (I don’t see notifications for <5.5) Those aftershocks are frightening in their magnitude...and I’m sure those people are at best getting tired of the shaking.

1. I have been thinking about all of those aftershocks too.  The largest earthquake I have ever felt was around a 5.5 I cannot even begin to imagine the 8.8 and then followed by all of those aftershocks.  I get nervous just thinking about it and I now live far from any location where that could happen.

   Posted by  on  02/28  at  03:30 AM

2. The Chilean aftershocks are unrelenting.  Since the 8.8 quake, there have been no fewer than 100 shakers higher than 5.0

   And...bad news Katie.  Get prepared 3 Days 3 Ways

   Posted by karan  on  02/28  at  10:24 AM

3. We’ve been waiting for the big one here for decades and all of these are making me nervous. And TERRIFIED.

   Posted by Margaret  on  02/28  at  02:48 PM

4. I worry about the lahar that’s coming from Mt. Rainier too but the earthquake...yup, we’re over due for that one.  Get yourself prepared!

   Posted by karan  on  02/28  at  06:31 PM

5. Conveniently I actually live in Pennsylvania.... and the part of PA is the grey part of this map..

   http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/pennsylvania/hazards.php

   But I did move out here from the Bay area...and I am a geologist...so I am prepared for natural disaster.  My friends here make fun of me because I still have an earthquake kit—came in handy when we got 2 feet of snow the other day and I was desperate for a diet coke and slow on the shoveling

   Posted by  on  03/02  at  09:09 AM

6. That’s good.  I love geology.

   Posted by karan  on  03/03  at  07:57 AM

7. Karan, yesterday in our newspaper, it said that Concepcion has moved 3 meters to the West, and Buenos Aires 4cms to the West. That whole GPS system has determined this.

   Karan, I really trust you about things like this and I really do wonder why I care.

   But the whole idea of cities moving has me flabbergasted.

   Three meters is a really long way…

   Is this another Urban Myth ?

   Posted by  on  03/11  at  02:46 PM

8. Not a myth...it’s true:  http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chilequakemap.htm

   The science of Plate Techtonics is really interesting...which basically tells us that the earth’s crust is a bunch of floating plates getting shoved here and there all the time. 

   Poor Chile has had a hard day with a bunch of new quakes.

   Posted by karan  on  03/11  at  06:21 PM

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