Saturday, February 27, 2010
Huge earthquake strikes Chile
A magnitude 8.8 is a monster. According to Wikipedia,
Like the Richter scale, the MMS is logarithmic, where an earthquake one whole number greater has 10 times the amplitude and has approximately 31.6 times more energy. For example, M7.0 has about 31.6 times the energy of M6.0, and 1000 times the energy of M5.0.Even with many of the newer buildings built to resist quakes, the enormous amount of energy released can do great damage to them and destroy older buildings. It is still too early to know how much damage was done and there is immediate concern around the Pacific about the tsunami this might generate. Beyond emergency rescue, Chile should be able to respond much more effectively than Haiti.
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