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An earthquake of a magnitude estimated at 1,000 times more powerful than that which recently struck Haiti hit Chile in the early morning hours. Twenty-five aftershocks, some of high magnitude. City of Concepcion hit hardest.
Just in the last 24 hours Chile had yet another 8.5 earthquake complete with more than 12 aftershocks of at least M4.9 and the latest one was about 30 minutes ago.....
Reading the Ecuadorian newspapers this morning (El Universo | Noticias de Ecuador y del mundo), it was a reported 8.3 in magnitude quake, it was felt all the way to Buenos Aires, (Arg), Perú and Ecuador.
It took 8 lives in the region around Illapel (pop. 31,000), about 230 km north of Santiago, tsunami alerts has been issued for the region.
I remember when the 2010 earthquake was mentioned in the news, it was on the heels of the earthquake that struck Haiti earlier that year. What a difference a well made infrastructure makes, because Chile's earthquake was actually stronger than Haiti's but considerably less deadly and with relatively minor infrastructural damage.
I guess the lesson is that Haiti's devastation due to the earthquake does has guilty people. All those worthless politicians that country had for so long, that instead of putting Haiti on the path of development and prosperity opted for keeping that country mired in the worst poverty and backwardness.
Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America, Chile is the richest. Those two earthquakes so near to each other in time, seem to have been intentional to show the importance of good governance.
I remember when the 2010 earthquake was mentioned in the news, it was on the heels of the earthquake that struck Haiti earlier that year. What a difference a well made infrastructure makes, because Chile's earthquake was actually stronger than Haiti's but considerably less deadly and with relatively minor infrastructural damage.
I guess the lesson is that Haiti's devastation due to the earthquake does has guilty people. All those worthless politicians that country had for so long, that instead of putting Haiti on the path of development and prosperity opted for keeping that country mired in the worst poverty and backwardness.
Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America, Chile is the richest. Those two earthquakes so near to each other in time, seem to have been intentional to show the importance of good governance.
Not really. Japan is probably 5 times as rich as Chile, and in many ways it's probably the country with the best infrastructure in the world, but when they had a huge earthquake back in 2011, tens of thousands of people were killed. It also lead to the destruction of a nuclear power plant which I'm sure everyone is familiar with. That area still hasn't recovered yet, like not at all.
Not really. Japan is probably 5 times as rich as Chile, and in many ways it's probably the country with the best infrastructure in the world, but when they had a huge earthquake back in 2011, tens of thousands of people were killed. It also lead to the destruction of a nuclear power plant which I'm sure everyone is familiar with. That area still hasn't recovered yet, like not at all.
The Japanese earthquake was different because of the massive tsunami that followed. Haiti and Chile didn't suffer massive tsunamis after their earthquakes. Despite that, the Haitian death toll surpassed 200,000 and some estimates go beyond 300,000. Large portions of Port-au-Prince was flattened. Imagine how much worse it would had been if a massive tsunami had hit Port-au-Prince too. I think a good chunk of the city would had literally been swept to the Caribbean Sea. Quite a terrifying scenario.
Port-au-Prince covered in cement dust due to the collapse of thousands of buildings during the 2010 earthquake (seen from a nearby mountain where on clear days the metropolis is visible in its entirety):
Compare that with the situation in Santiago de Chile during its 2010 earthquake:
So few buildings collapsed that the air in Chile remained perfectly clear during and after the earthquake, despite that it was much stronger than Haiti's.
A similar situation was experienced in Japan before the tsunami swept through.
Here's a video of a more recent earthquake in Tokyo where the ground felt as if it was liquid. No widespread collapse of buildings.
Last edited by AntonioR; 09-17-2015 at 01:18 PM..
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