Chile earthquake, 8.8 richter ?? ..... hell .....

[HIMNL9]

I've just heard about the Chile earthquake ..... hell, 8.8 ? ..... a damn high level, also if Richter scale is approximative ..... especially seeing the sysmograms that was recorded til here (i attached a pair of them, if someone want to see ..... two meters, SSG-V station (Matera) and STRA-EHE station (Stromboli), the colors are different axis, and each image cover 4 hours in repeated passes, each pass is half hour)

And again, perhaps, over one of the junction lines (and, as far as i remember, in the '60 they suffered another big earthquake, not sure if 9 or more grade) ..... I'm ofcourse sad for all those peoples and populations, but i'm also a little bit preoccupied about another possibility ..... in the last year, lots of earthquakes, in few time (relatively speaking ..... geologically, the earthquakes happened in the world in the last year are a lot) ..... maybe we're going to another world mantle realignment ? ..... hope not, considering the possible results .....

 

[Ears and Eggs]

No idea what 'world mantle realignment' means, but yeah, they seem to have a history of this. The Valdivia megathrust earthquake in 1960 there was magnitude 9.5. Not sure what scale they were using though cause I think we are now using the moment magnitude scale now over the Richter. Not what countries moved over to the new scale yet. Really sucks for anyone living there and those that could be caught in the tsunami, including several LPF members from that area.

 

[HIMNL9]

^ Sorry, about "world mantle realignment", i mean the continental derive, caused from the "plaques" of the mantle that surround the earth core, that, occasionally, moves, for realign the tensions (i know they are not technical terms, probably, but my english is that what it is, sorry ..... and, geologically speaking, "occasionally" may mean every some thousand of years )

That what i meant, was, the last "realignment" was the one that positioned the continents where they are actually, and as far as i know, there's no sure way for say that this cannot happen again, nor when it can happen ..... so ..... just trying to imagine what can mean another movement of this type ..... we (the survived ones, at least, if there was any survived), may need to recalculate the actual magnitude scales and add some levels, for describe an event like this ..... and i, for sure, may not be so happy, living a similar experience .....

 

[Benm]

The (parts of) continents are in continous motion with the tectonic plates they are on. This is not a process where they occasionally 'jump' a few meters with a big quake, they move at a steady pace of a few inches a year towards/from eachother.

It's along the borders of the moving plates that earthquakes, but also volcanos appear. This is unfortunate since is causes volcanic islands to be eartquake prone, which you can see very dramatically around indonesia.

Many of the plate boundaries are under the ocean, but some are very close to land. Especially the western edge of south america is right on top of one, giving these enormous quakes here. It seems that the damage in this case is limited because the quake was very deep, but as far as i read it did cause a small (5 foot tall or so) tsunami-like wave to roll onto shore too.

 

[HIMNL9]

I'm not sure about the tsunami in Chile, but this morning TV Was speaking about possible 40 meters height waves to the more "at risk" parts of the world, through the ocean ..... ofcourse, can always be one of the usual journalists exagerations (and for the populations of these countries, i hope it was just an exageration) ..... the only problem with tsunami, is that you cannot know how much the wave become high, until it's not arrived .....

And yes, i know about the tectonic movement that is, normally, gradual, i was referring to the frictions on the edges, that you've mentioned, about the effects ..... sometimes happens that for some hundred of years, two borders remain locked, accumulating energy, and at certain points, they "snap" away, and this cause the most part of the ondulatory earthquakes ..... when this is matter of few centimeters, the earthquake is "relatively" small (even speaking in matter of geological values), but if this become matter of half meter, or a meter, of shifting in a second, the results are really bad, in a populated zone .....

I never tried to calculate, as example, the energy needed for shift also just half meter for second a continental mass, like as example Europe or Asia, but i doubt i have a calculator with a display large enough .....

And i have also another "little reason" for be preoccupied, about earthquakes ..... you know i live in Italy ..... Italy was formed from the compression of one of the main lines between two borders (the African plaque, that press and slide under the Eurasian one), and is one of the more active places of this part of the world (in a country so small, we have the "luck" to have 20 main and almost other 120 secondary active lines), about earthquakes, and periodically we still have some "gift" from these lines ..... if there is any "snap" between two of the main sliding borders, there's a good 50% of possibility that effects arrives til here, directly or indirectly .....

 

[nikokapo]

I'm surprised we didn't feel anything here...

 

[Things]

We were on Tsunami watch this morning from this quake, and it was forecast to hit around the exact same time as king tide here, which could have been catastrophic. I believe Hawaii saw a mere .2M wave from the event, the biggest wave being around 3.4M