Massive Magnitude 8.8 Quake Hits Chile, Killing Dozens

FoxNews.com ^ | February 27, 2010 | Fox News

[GiovannaNicoletta]

BREAKING NEWS — A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, collapsing buildings, killing dozens and downing phone lines. President Michele Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile and said the death toll was rising.

Chile's top emergency official said at least 78 people were killed

"It has been a devastating earthquake," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma told reporters.

[Salgak]

In comparison, a 7.0 earthquake killed hundreds of thousands in Haiti.

If that’s not proof that culture makes a difference, I’m not sure what is. . .

[PLMerite]

Death tolls always start out with the few lying in the street, then start climbing.

[bcsco]

My neighbor spend a lot of time down there on business. He’s there now. Hope all is well with him.

[stranger and pilgrim]

It also has a lot to do with whether the quake’s epicenter is in a populated area or not.

[InternetTuffGuy]

Another way to put it in perspective - a magnitude 7 quake equals about 32 megatons of energy released.

An 8.8 equals around 250,000,000 megatons.

The largest nuke - the Russian Tsar Bomba was only 50 megatons.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

What has culture to do with the difference in the death tolls of Haiti and Chile?

[DuncanWaring]

What has culture to do with the difference in the death tolls of Haiti and Chile?

The level of energy the populace is willing to devote to constructing strong buildings.

[hennie pennie]

Here's the main thread with hundreds & hundreds of posts:

8.8 in Chile [Update at #277]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2460407/posts

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Earthquakes don’t kill people. Buildings kill people. Shoddy construction amplifies the destructive consequences of earthquakes.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Not so sure about your math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale gives Richter 7.0 = 32 megatons and Richter 9.0 = 32 gigaton = 1000 megatons, consistent with the 10^1.5 rule. Using the 10^1.5 rule implies that a difference of 1.8 Richters = a factor of 500 (10^(1.5*1.8)) or Ricther 8.8 = 16,000 megatons, still gewaltig.

[reagan_fanatic]

Exactly. If everyone there lived in an open field, there would be few if any casualties. It is the buildings that kill.

[InternetTuffGuy]

No, you're right - I was pulling the figure off a google search, not doing the math. And yes a 16,000 megaton h-bomb, if one were to be built, would be fairly stämmig.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Hitler wasn't orginally a big fan of the V2 project. After watching a test firing of a rocket motor at Peenemunde, he was forced to remark, Es war, doch, verwaltig.

[hanamizu]

Fox TV doesn’t seem to be covering it. CNN is, but if you want to see what’s happening in Chile right now, especially the damage, check out Univision. It’s in Spanish, but the pictures aren’t. Univision is 402 on DirecTV.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I actually got the line from some USC seismologists. They were invited to Armenia by the Soviet government after severe earthquake in the early 1990’s to offer an assessment. At their first press conference the leader's opening remarks were just that, “Earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings kill people.” He went on to blame the high fatality figures on shoddy Soviet era construction, which featured brittle concrete housing blocks.

[InternetTuffGuy]

Fox TV doesn’t seem to be covering it.

I know, WTF!!! Internet dating? I hate doing it but I have to keep switching to CNN.

[oldleft]

CNN is always better at breaking news because of their structure. Fox relies on affiliates whereas CNN uses their own resources to cover breaking events which gives them an edge.

Fox is better at investigative journalism though.

[oldleft]

Also, I don’t think Chileans are the types to wait for American search and rescue teams to show up before looking for people or wait for Danny Glover to throw a telethon before they start finding emergency food and shelter.

[Salgak]

ONE culture builds. The other just. . feeds.