8.8 Earthquake!

[Oscar]

Chile has a crazy earthquake early in the morning. It was an 8.8 earthquake that lasted for 90 seconds! Insane stuff! California and Hawaii are under tsunami warning as well as other small islands!

California and Hawaii are under tsunami warning as well as other small islands!

California is a small island?

Who knew.

[slosprint]

... I think my pet turtle predicted the earthquake all the way in MA!!! He was going nuts all day yesterday!!!

[Coasterkidmwm]

No.

65 times strong than the Haitian earthquake while lasting for a longer duration. Lets see how the "using engineers" approach vs. using missionaries to build buildings works.

Something like that.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Eeeeeeeeeesh.

Well, I seriously doubt american cities like San Fransisco would be any better off.

From The L.A. Times:

Chile's quake 500 times more powerful than Haiti's
In the end, though, the damage is not likely to be as heavy as in Haiti because of the depth of the quake, the population density and the amount of preparation.


The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that jolted Chile early Saturday packed roughly 500 times the wallop of the seismic disaster that struck Haiti last month. But the damage and deaths in Chile, still being tallied, will probably be much less devastating.

The Haitian quake was shallow and centered just miles from an especially densely populated urban hub: Port-au-Prince, the capital. The Chilean quake was much deeper and centered offshore, and Chile's Pacific coast near the epicenter is sparsely populated in comparison.

Chile is relatively well prepared for earthquakes. An area of intense seismic activity, the mountainous South American country has experienced numerous deadly jolts, including a 9.5 quake in 1960, the strongest ever recorded. Children grow up doing earthquake drills in school.

Laws require construction that can withstand temblors, and an immediate-response network of rescuers and emergency personnel was able to quickly spring into action.

Haiti had not had a major quake since the 19th century. Most of its housing and other buildings consisted of cinder block and un-reinforced concrete. It was that type of construction that proved a death trap when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Jan. 12, killing more than 215,000 people and leaving a million homeless.

Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere, Chile one of the wealthiest. Devastation was so complete in the Haitian capital, the country's main population cluster and nerve center, that the government virtually disappeared.

In Chile, President Michelle Bachelet, with her capital, Santiago, battered but still standing, was visible in the first hours after the quake, clearly in charge, speaking to the public and overseeing rescue efforts.

"In this kind of disaster we are all involved," she said in one of many live television broadcasts as she calmly but forcefully ticked off the steps being taken to count the dead, treat the injured and inspect the damage.

Mark Benthien of the USC Earthquake Center said an 8.8 quake causes 512 "times the shaking" that a 7.0 does. It produces a larger rupture surface, meaning a broader area is shaken. The duration of the movement is also longer.

Unlike the Haiti disaster, Saturday's quake had an added potential for calamity when it unleashed tsunamis that hit parts of the planet thousands of miles away.

[Coasterkidmwm]

500 times more powerful? Where are they getting that figure? The scale is logarithmic, not exponential.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

500 times more powerful? Where are they getting that figure? The scale is logarithmic, not exponential.

Taking the logarithm of a number A in base B is the inverse operation of raising number B to the power A. Thus the magnitude is logarithmic in the energy; the energy goes as the exponential of the magnitude.

[slosprint]

woah... My brain hurts.

Nah that made absolute sense. You'll get to learning it at the end of Algebra II if not Pre-cal.

[Coasterkidmwm]

And the above is why I don't do physics lol. Thanks entropy.

Originally posted by entropy

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

500 times more powerful? Where are they getting that figure? The scale is logarithmic, not exponential.

Taking the logarithm of a number A in base B is the inverse operation of raising number B to the power A. Thus the magnitude is logarithmic in the energy; the energy goes as the exponential of the magnitude.

He says riding a kiddie coaster.