Does anyone find it disturbing that we can watch a possible natural disaster occurring live?

 

Hope everyone will be fine.

 

On a different note, a swimming whale was on the Fox News camera shot. Cool. :thumbup:

[bleep], CNN, Ustream, nothing is working. The CNN on TV has ADD and can't keep its camera on the coast.

Lol i quitted stream because too many people in front of cam

Does anyone find it disturbing that we can watch a possible natural disaster occurring live?

 

Hope everyone will be fine.

 

On a different note, a swimming whale was on the Fox News camera shot. Cool. :thumbup:

 

this is nothing, i watched a live stream of israel messing around in palestine last year. intense.

 

Lol i quitted stream because too many people in front of cam

 

it's gone now, i think their laptop ran out of power

Ustream is back.

I've heard of another earthquake hitting Oklahoma too. Any idea if this is true?

I've heard of another earthquake hitting Oklahoma too. Any idea if this is true?

 

Yeah, there was a 4.0 earthquake. You're on the internet, Google is just a click away.

Yeah Chile has had the biggest earthquake ever of 9.5 magnitude (1960) and a couple more of big quakes , however the last biggie quake was in 1985 , since then we havent had massive quakes

Smaller quakes are actually fun in a country that is designed to stand quakes lol :P

Man I would have been mad if I were to be Hawaii today.

 

*Sleeping in on a saturday morning*

 

WAKE UP THERES A TSUNAMI COMING!!!

 

*RUns to higher ground and waits*

 

*10 hours later nothing happens*

 

*Rage*

Man I would have been mad if I were to be Hawaii today.

 

*Sleeping in on a saturday morning*

 

WAKE UP THERES A TSUNAMI COMING!!!

 

*RUns to higher ground and waits*

 

*10 hours later nothing happens*

 

*Rage*

 

It strikes at dawn.

My cousin's studying abroad in Santiago right now so he was there when it happened. From the sounds of it, it was pretty intense even in Santiago (which wasn't the epicenter). Sides of buildings collapsed, rubble all over the streets, people were sleeping in tents on the sidewalks afterward, gas stations were insanely busy as were the supermarkets that were open.

 

The death toll is up over 700 now, 300+ in Constitucion alone. I guess something like 60% of Constitucion was destroyed. :-|

The Big Picture's photo journal

A very good friend hasn`t contacted me since the quake , i hope she`s fine :(

Whoa, those photos are intense...

 

Also, here's a fairly lengthy firsthand narrative of what it was like in Santiago (which didn't even get hit that bad, to give you some perspective).

 

[hide]Chile is a country with a dark history. Bloody conquests, political dictatorship, thousands of political killings, brutal torture, maltreatment of natives, and natural disasters. I came to Chile two weeks ago with the intention of studying human rights and Andean culture. Chile is a country in transition and I wanted to be there to experience it all. What I did not expect to experience was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in human history.

 

It has been about three days since the huge earthquake hit Santiago, Chile. I am currently residing in the center of Santiago, Chile's capital and largest city. The 8.8 earthquake hit around 3:32 a.m. and has created chaos throughout Chile.

 

I woke up to the sound of a semi-truck heading straight towards my room. When I looked up, I saw the chandelier above my head shaking violently. At first, I had no idea what was going on and then suddenly I thought to myself, "This is an earthquake." I quickly jumped out of my bed and ran underneath the doorway in my bedroom to take cover. The bookshelf next to me was shaking violently and shelves with books were falling down. It was difficult to stand and I could feel the whole building shaking back and forth. The earthquake didn't seem to stop and I had fears that the apartment building was going to collapse on itself. I had no idea how severe the earthquake was; I'd never experienced an earthquake before. It felt like it was pretty rough but I thought that it had been something like a 5 on the Richter scale. My host mom ran to the door before the earthquake had stopped to check on me. Finally the earthquake stopped. We were safe. We were much luckier than the majority of the people in Chile. I asked my host mom if we had to call my study abroad directors; I think she was dumbfounded by my question. I really had no idea how intense the earthquake had been.

 

About a half hour after the earthquake, my host mom and I went down to the streets. People in the apartment lobby were yelling with excitement to see that my host mom was safe (she is an older lady). Being on the street was very surreal. We walked four blocks down to check on another student who was alone in his apartment. I will never forget the complete darkness and dust that layered the street. The only light was coming from the flashlights and lanterns from people lining the street. People were listening to their battery powered radio and expressing their fears to their neighbors. Everytime we passed a different radio, it was saying something different. I remember one radio saying that 5 people had died; I thought that that was horrible! If only that were the case. We finally met up with the student by himself at his apartment and returned to our apartment. On the walk, I kept tripping over rubble scattered on the streets. My host mom decided that it would be safer to walk on the street, since debris was still falling off of the buildings. None of Santiago had electricity or telephone communications for the first two hours. Around 5:45 am, telecommunications were back on in my apartment. My host mom and I tried frantically to communicate with the study abroad advisors without any luck. Then around 6:00 am, the phone rang and it was a panicking advisor. I'd never heard her speak English before, but she was very nervous for I was the first student that she could get a hold of. I let her know that I was okay and that our building was still standing. After the phone call, the electricity came back to our apartment, less than 3 hours after the earthquake. We turned on the news to see the horror. That is when I discovered that the earthquake was nearly a 9 and that it had hit as a 7.5 in Santiago. I was stunned.

 

I went to bed around 6:30 am only to wake up at 7:45 am to a large aftershock. That's when I noticed that I felt a little vertigo. My body did not trust the stability of the ground anymore and I had a fear in the pit of my stomach. I went back to bed until about 10:30 am when I woke up for the day. At breakfast, my host mom kept praying and repeating that we need to thank God that we are safe. She went on to explain that we are one of the few places that has electricity, water, gas, and communications. I explained that I need to try to call home. With tears in her eyes and a severe voice, she explained, two times, that most of the telephone lines are down and that I would probably not be able to reach outside of the Santiago area. Luckily I was able to communicate with my family and friends via Skype and Facebook. I spent the rest of the day inside of my apartment by orders of my study abroad director and host mom. I spent the day watching the news, witnessing the horrible events that had happened to this country. Five people dead became 100 people dead then 214 people, then 314, and then yesterday 708. The numbers keep on rising. There are 36 students studying abroad in this program. I received frienship requests from complete strangers wondering if I'd heard news of their brothers, sisters, and children. I called the director and discovered that everyone was safe and accounted for. I spent a few hours going on Facebook pages of people on the trip to let their families know that they were safe.

 

Sunday, I wandered out to the dead streets of Santiago to see what the damage was and see the situation with the people. I walked no more than 10 feet to see a building that suffered severe damages. Part of the roof had fallen to the ground and crushed the front of a vehicle parked underneath. Two blocks more, I see the Church with broken windows and a huge crack down the center of its facade. A few blocks more, I see a Church that has completely collapsed. A block away, there are dozens of cars lined up on the streets, trying to get gas. On the boulevard of this street are tents filled with teary-eyed that cannot return to their apartments. Throughout the whole city, there are bricks on the sidewalk, entire sides of buildings collapsed onto the street, service workers trying to fix the broken water lines, people sleeping on beds and in tents, and an eerie sense of calm. I finally made it to the city center of Santiago where there is always action. It was completely dead. The only action was coming from a supermarket, where hundreds of people were lined up for blocks waiting to get basic necessities. Some of the most beautiful edifices in all of Chile had suffered severe damages. Glass and brick lined the main walkways of the city. This disaster had struck Santiago with great power but completely wiped out cities only 100 miles from here.

 

Today, most of the city is still without electricity, water, gas, and/or communications. People are coming to my host family's place to take showers and people are rushing to the grocery stores (that are open) in order to get water. There are curfews (11:00pm-6:00am) for many cities throughout Chile. My host mom mentioned that Chileans are used to curfews due to those imposed by Pinochet just two decades ago. Many cities are experiencing looting and coastal cities are still afraid of tsunamis because they hit unexpectedly before. Hundreds of people are still trapped or missing. Reconstruction cannot start until these emergencies have been settled.

 

I came to a country that has suffered a lot in the last century, never imagining that I would have to relive that pain with them. Luckily, Chileans are good at picking up their heads and moving forward (they have had a lot of practice). It is going to be a long process to clean up the country, but signs of normality are beginning to come back. Yesterday, I rode the metro and today I'm going out for some coffee with friends. This event was very tragic and there is still a large mess that needs to be cleaned up so we will move forward even if our bodies are still shaking from the initial wave and the aftershocks that continue to plague this country and its memories.[/hide]

Apparently by some people I know, the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are more evidence for Global Climate Change. <_<

Apparently by some people I know, the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are more evidence for Global Climate Change. <_<

 

When you speak to these friends, do they give any clues that could indicate they are actually Al Gore in disguise?

There was also a major earthquake in Taiwan (6.4). I haven't seen any discussion about it, so I thought that I would post it here.

Ok this is off topic but I don't care.

 

 

I have a friend in Chile who txted me DURING the earthquake (he lived pretty far away I imagine) "omg the ground is shaking a tiny bit, I think its an earthquake!" but I assumed he was [cabbage]ting, and I woke up the next day and was like WAT.

 

 

 

@sere, thats cuz no one died I'm pretty sure.

There was also a major earthquake in Taiwan (6.4). I haven't seen any discussion about it, so I thought that I would post it here.

I'm Taiwanese (as if I don't broadcast that enough) and I thought about posting it, but I suppose Saru is right. I think 12 people were injured. And a 6.4 is like 1/6th the power of the Haiti quake. I'll just keep talking though since it was brought up...although Taiwan is one of the densest countries in Asia, the epicenter was in the mountains. Taiwan is also pretty prepared for earthquakes though - two 7.0's hit around the same time a few years back and only like 2 people died.

Though there was also a 6.5 earthquake near Indonesia. I'd think that'd be more serious since Indonesia is a much poorer country, but apparently not.

Note: Don't bring up Taiwan or else I'll just keep going off on tangents. :-P

If I went to several forums and claimed that it was because the Pacific was sinking into the Earth, how many idiots do you think would believe it?

There was also a major earthquake in Taiwan (6.4). I haven't seen any discussion about it, so I thought that I would post it here.

I'm Taiwanese (as if I don't broadcast that enough) and I thought about posting it, but I suppose Saru is right. I think 12 people were injured. And a 6.4 is like 1/6th the power of the Haiti quake. I'll just keep talking though since it was brought up...although Taiwan is one of the densest countries in Asia, the epicenter was in the mountains. Taiwan is also pretty prepared for earthquakes though - two 7.0's hit around the same time a few years back and only like 2 people died.

Though there was also a 6.5 earthquake near Indonesia. I'd think that'd be more serious since Indonesia is a much poorer country, but apparently not.

Note: Don't bring up Taiwan or else I'll just keep going off on tangents. :-P

 

6.4 isn't 1/6th of an 8.8, it is something like 1/20,000th.

He said of the haiti earthquake, not the chile one.

He said of the haiti earthquake, not the chile one.

 

Woah, my bad. I wasn't paying enough attention.

Over the last few months things have been heating up in our famous National Park and none of it is good.

 

Over eight days, more than 1,270 mostly tiny earthquakes have struck between Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. The strongest dozen or so have ranged between magnitudes 3.0 and 3.8. These are beginning to become serious in size, as a growing swarm of course, but the vast majority have been too weak to be felt even nearby.

 

The volcano last had a caldera-forming eruption 640,000 years ago and last spewed lava 70,000 years ago, which means it could have erupted along with the Toba super volcano. Geologists say Yellowstone could erupt again, although the probability of an eruption within anyone's lifetime is extremely low! I like those odds, but with all the weird things going on in the physical world these days, who knows?

 

Ever since the Boxing Day Quake in 2004, the entire Pacific Ocean tectonic Plate has been re-adjusting. As a result, we started seeing increases in seismic events traveling north along the Japan Islands and South along Malaysia into New Guinea/Fiji/New Zealand. There followed more quakes traveling east alone the north and south edges of the plate, which being lightly occupied area mostly went unreported outside the seismological community.

 

Inevitably the readjustment has arrived at the eastern edge of the Pacific Plate and we seem to be seeing increased seismic events along that edge, which is also the western edge of the Americas.

 

Plate links to plate and the Pacific Plate connects to the Nazca Plate and Cocos Plates, which abut South America and link to the Caribbean Plate. The Pacific Plate forms the western side of the San Andreas fault along North America's west coast.

 

So, we have had major quakes in Haiti and Chile. Not too long ago there was a rare major quake on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge along a fault junction that connects to the Caribbean Plate.

 

Got that "Fall down, bounce around, shake the town, Earthquake Boogie!"

 

So, follow me on this; The Pacific Plate thrusts underneath the North American Plate angling towards the east as it dips deeper into the Earth. The magma chamber under Yellowstone sinks down towards the west. Prior to the recent determination of the scape of the Yellowstone Mama chamber it was assumed that the Yellowstone Supervolcano was a "hot spot" volcano similar to the ones in Hawaii, but with the true scale and direction of the Yellowstone magma chamber currently understood, it seems more likely that Yellowstone is a classic subduction volcano.

 

But whether Yellowstone is directly connected to the subducting Pacific Plate or not, in geological terms they are in close proximity and Yellowstone's lava, like that of all exploding volcanoes, contains massive amounts of dissolved gasses like CO2.

 

Just as a sudden shock to a warm glass of soda pop will trigger an episode of increased fizzing, a major quake along the Pacific plate will send compression waves through the Earth and into the Yellowstone Magma Chamber and unbalance the current dynamic equilibrium of dissolved gasses. That might well trigger a significant eruption of Yellowstone?

Well, they were prepared for these things... Kind of sucks to be struck with such force though.