Shoutbox

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Originally posted by Chrono
yeah, im alive

i was checking out the shoutbox when it started. It started slowly and, as i said, i didnt bother about it as we get a lot of tremors in Chile (because we're "in between" the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, so we're all used to them ). So i even took the time to make the "woah" shout i was about to post that it was tremoring when things got worse, though.

Suddenly it got really hard, so i quickly went and stood under the door frame, which is the safest place during a tremor/earthquake in case you didn't know . Then things started to fall at home, it was REALLY noisy, so noisy that i had to yell at my father (who'd just woke up) that i was ok, even though this is a small appartment. i saw how there was a crack appearing at the wall right next to me ;o. Then there was a powerdown, no more lights to see any of the action . Then it slowly stopped .

i must admit tht i like tremors, i even enjoy them, but this was way too much, it was really scary ;o. The strongest part of the earthquake lasted for about 15/20 seconds .

So that's it, we got a lot of aftershocks, but nothing really important We cleaned up a bit before going to bed after an hour or so .

Btw, the earthquake was 8.8 (Mercalli) in the epicentre and about 8 here in Santiago.

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I find it a little disturbing that you were able to use the '' emoticon so many times while talking about an earthquake ~700 times stronger than Haiti's one

lol Dont be fooled by what they show you on tv, you know they always show the worst stuff . The most damaged places were the ones with old buildings mostly, when there was no regulation about constructions (and that's like 50 years old buildings ), and small towns with adobe houses and stuff.

Luckily, you cant see much damage in my neighborhood, the only thing that gives it away is an old church from the 1850s, that lost it's belfry





That's 2 blocks away from here
Other than that you could barely notice some cracks and windows that had crashed . Well, the lack of stores opened kinda gave it away too

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Originally posted by SonicSam

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Looks like Chile ate too many chili.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
yeah, he could've just called you if he wanted your attention like normal people, instead of slamming his banhammer on the red button... I suppose

* CookieRevised runs...

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rofl wtf Yeah it's all my fault.

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Originally posted by Th3rmal
I find it a little disturbing that you were able to use the '' emoticon so many times while talking about an earthquake ~700 times stronger than Haiti's one

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Dont blame me for being addicted to that emoticon

awesome edit andrey lol ;o

quote:

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Originally posted by Chrono
yeah, im alive

i was checking out the shoutbox when it started. It started slowly and, as i said, i didnt bother about it as we get a lot of tremors in Chile (because we're "in between" the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, so we're all used to them ). So i even took the time to make the "woah" shout i was about to post that it was tremoring when things got worse, though.

Suddenly it got really hard, so i quickly went and stood under the door frame, which is the safest place during a tremor/earthquake in case you didn't know . Then things started to fall at home, it was REALLY noisy, so noisy that i had to yell at my father (who'd just woke up) that i was ok, even though this is a small appartment. i saw how there was a crack appearing at the wall right next to me ;o. Then there was a powerdown, no more lights to see any of the action . Then it slowly stopped .

i must admit tht i like tremors, i even enjoy them, but this was way too much, it was really scary ;o. The strongest part of the earthquake lasted for about 15/20 seconds .

So that's it, we got a lot of aftershocks, but nothing really important We cleaned up a bit before going to bed after an hour or so .

Btw, the earthquake was 8.8 (Mercalli) in the epicentre and about 8 here in Santiago.



As the quote says, this earthquake was ~700 times stronger than the one in haiti, how so? Because Mercalli is a logarithmic scale, meaning that a change in 1 magnitud means a hell of  lot of change in the energy of the earthquake. Still, as i said before, we know that we live in a sismic country, so we make our buildings in order to resist these things. Hence, there wasn't so much damage (at least in santiago, which is the capital city and has more modern structures ). I went out to see how bad it was and tbh you can barely notice there was an earthquake over here. There is some major damage in other places though.

see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8540522.stm

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Hahahah Chrono!
The North Region (Where I live)  is more sismic than the center and the south zones..
But wow! It was my best sleeping night ahaha..
I'm so greateful <3
I'm a bit worried about Chillan and Concepcion..=/
I still don't know nothing about a couple of friends on there D:
And bleh! We are on Chile, we can handle this
...
Me alegro que estes bien =P
Te lo mereces por ser un recien egresado de la Universidad =/

Glad to hear your okay Chrono, I don't browse the forums much but visited to see if you were okay, somehow I remembered you being from Chile, but in other news this quake made bigger waves across the great blue in Australia: http://www.smh.com.au/world/tsunami-as-fast-as-a-...20100228-pb76.html

All tsunami alerts/warnings have been cancelled by now throughout the world afaik.

So far, 708 deaths have been reported and the number is expected to rise further. Santiago hasnt been damaged that much, mostly downtown where there are older buildingings.
So, hopefully, it's not that bad over here. i mean, we got power back after 2 hours and i could even get online by then . The airport's working, 3 lines of the metro are working already, supermarkets are all open, etc.

Most of the damage was done to smaller towns and in Concepcion, the second to largest city in Chile, where the earthquake hit with a magnitude of ~9 (in Santiago, it was 8). They still have no water not electricity, but they're working on it and hopefully they'll have it back soon.

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"About 1.5 million homes have been damaged. Most of the collapsed buildings were of older design - including many historic structures."

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"One US risk assessor, Eqecat, put the value of the damage at between $15bn and $30bn (£9.8bn-£19.6bn)."

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So far we haven't requested international assistance so i guess we're fine

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"Chile has so far not requested foreign assistance, saying it can handle the immediate relief effort.

Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said Chile did not want aid offers to be "a distraction", adding: "Any aid that arrives without having been determined to be needed really helps very little." "

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Although our president did say that we could accept some of the offers at some point

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"In Chile, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday has so far killed more than 700 people. On January 12, a less powerful earthquake, one measuring 7.0, killed more than 200,000 in Haiti.

The difference in those death tolls comes from building construction and technology, scientists and engineers have said. In Haiti, buildings were constructed quickly and cheaply. Chile, a richer and more industrialized nation, adheres to more stringent building codes."

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This + Haiti has made me realise that no matter how shite the weather is here in England, that us complaining about it is pretty lousy compared to places that get earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

The worst we get is a bit cold or a bit hot......oh, and the odd dusting of snow which grinds the country to a halt cos most people are fags, lol

Glad you're okay though

Chrono, I'm glad to hear that you & your family are safe. 

What town/city do you live in?  My girlfriend just flew down there yesterday to assist with trauma counseling & translating for monolingual aid workers.