Chilean Earthquake

This video summarizes the massive earthquake that occurred in Northern Chile and assesses the damage. After watching this I feel more educated about the situation in Chile. I am very surprised that only 6 lives were lost seeing as this earthquake had an 8.2 magnitude, which is one of the biggest earthquakes to happen in Chile. Not to long ago in 2010 a 8.8 magnitude hit Chile, this left 500 dead and triggered a gigantic Tsunami. The biggest earthquake recorded since the 1900 was also in Chile which had a 9.5 magnitude. Sadly, Chile is a very vulnerable country, due to it’s economic situation and impoverished population.

This earthquake caused landslides and cut power, it also triggered a Tsunami warning. Seawater flooded the city streets and washed away many fishing boats in the process. Luckily, no major Tsunami damage was recorded, there was a mandatory evacuation that lasted a quick 10 hours in the coastal towns that were close to the shore. Soon after all the people were happily returned to their homes.

The scariest part of all is that around 300 prisoners escaped from Northern Port City, which forced the closing of the Peruvian border. The president soon after declared a state of emergency and sent 100 anti-riot police officers and 300 military soldiers to prevent raiding, looting and to capture all of the escaped prisoners.

The day before the massive 8.2 earthquake struck Chile, a 5.1 earthquake occurred in southern Los Angeles. The earthquake was much smaller compared to the one in Chile, however caused extensive damage to apartment complexes and stores in the surrounding areas. Fortunately there were no deaths from this earthquake but many buildings have been deemed unsafe to access. After the earthquake there have been numerous aftershocks that are not noticeable to humans. The aftershocks were minute compared to the ones after Chile's earthquake, which was prepared for by locals before it came. This is because of the strict building codes that chile put in place after its 2010 earthquake that caused far more damage and took hundreds of lives. If their strict building codes weren't in place the 8.2 earthquake could have caused much more damage and taken the lives of five times the amount that happened.