The Watering Hole

I guess they get the Gold with Japan's 7.0 getting the Silver...  Since Chile's already had a 6.2 aftershock they get the Bronze too, right?

Holy fuck, 8.8??!  :o I hope they're built better than Haiti and that was "only" a 7.0 too.

Unlike Haiti, their buildings were built to withstand quakes (it's a pretty active quake zone from what I understand).  There will be damage and death, but not on the scale of Haiti.  

I hope it ain't as bad as Haiti. The quake was worse magnitude wise but off the coast somewhere in the sea near Chili (I hear so far).

They had a 9.5 in 1960.  As a result, they have decent earthquake building codes.  I can't even imagine 8.8, let alone 8.0... biggest I've ever seen was 7.2.  The comparison in death and destruction between Haiti and Chile is amazing.

The comparison in Government response was pretty stark as well.  Chile's President was on the radio and TV within minutes, and emergency help was prompt.  Haiti didn't even know if it HAD a President for over 24 hours and the Presidential Palace fell in the quake as well.  Chile definitely has their act together, probably only second to the Japanese in building codes and preparedness.

I saw a description of how the Earthquakes were figured, the 8.8 was off shore and a the fault was long, the one at Haiti was centered right under the town and the fault was very short. The length of the fault has something to do with the severity of the shaking as to how they classify it in numbers. I did not get the drift of it totally but the number does not reflect the severity as much as location and length of the fault.

It makes a lot of people up here in the Pacific Northwest nervous to know that one of the few places capable of 9+ magnatude quakes is right off the coast.  The fault line is the same length (about 600 miles), shape (straight with a slight curve) and distance from the coast (about 60 miles) as the fault that produced the 9.1 quake off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra (on 12/26/2005).

If you look at this map of the largest earthquakes recorded since 1900, you'll notice that off our coast is eerily blank - most scientists agree that we're in the time window and a really big one could occur during our lifetimes (or within the next 100+ years - Mother Nature is so precise, isn't she? :D ).

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/10_largest_world.php

Where I'm currently living is far enough away from the Columbia river to not be affected (3 miles), but most of the coast and much of Seattle is probably going to be wiped out.  Some of our volcanos might wake up again as well and THAT would be another long-term global annoyance!

I remember when I used to think that California was a bad place for earthquakes.  But as it turns out, most of the world is a bad place for earthquakes.  There are fault lines everywhere, and the earth is constantly shifting.  It just happens on geologic time scales... so you never know, that 1 in 50,000 year event could be happening any time now... or not.

Life is uncertain.  Earthquakes keep us from believing in a false sense of security.

charger — Mar 03, 2010 Life is uncertain.  Earthquakes keep us from believing in a false sense of security.

Meteors can have that same effect...

Stratman and Kev had that same effect,

charger — Mar 03, 2010Life is uncertain.  Earthquakes keep us from believing in a false sense of security.

Excellent observation amigo, there is no such thing as safety, once you get used to that idea, it is all just another day at the beach.

My additions/observations:

Life is a temporary situation, don't take it too seriously.

Don't worry about things you can't control!  :)