earthquake

IQUIQUE Ms.8.2 EARTHQUAKE, APRIL 1, 2014

Iquique earthquake occurs in the interaction of the Nazca and South American layers, both have a colossal encounter, billion years ago , and will strive perpetually and only God knows which will win. Remember when you , in history class, were studying Greek literature which was based on the struggles of gods and demigods of mythology. The meeting of two tectonic plates , is that like , they are gigantic and have enormous power and as a result of their struggle occurs destruction to humans .

Leaving philosophy aside, this quake was quite shallow and generated a lot of fear and even a tsunami warning .

Iquique , is nowadays, one of the most important free zones of South America , has a perfect localization to bring products to Peru , Chile, Bolivia and Brazil , with a population of just 166,000 inhabitants in northern Chile , but is a heart economic development of the region.

The free zone is called ZOFRI ( Zona Franca de Iquique ) , which has a mall where you can buy products without paying taxes and great savings .

The following video is recorded in the ZOFRI mall , just at the time of the earthquake. A brave man instead of running, decided to record the earthquake completely , about 3 minutes of terror.

The earthquake begins with a strong and long stroke but gradually is increased , we see in the video, how the shelves and products fall to the ground. In terror, the people leave the place , it looks like the structure falters and this brave man, who shouted, at first, “quiet and stay calm”, after the first minute of the quake, when it worsens, he loses control and with a heartbreaking and desperate shout , in the strongest seismic stroke , the man screamed “NO MORE , ITS ENOUGH” and it turns out that the earthquake followed his instructions , XD .

Do not underestimate these earthquakes and always go to a safe place, don´t try to be a reporter, but if you still want to be one, then you have to endure.

See the rawness of the images.

Worked in 2000, during a stay in Japan, I engaged in trying to produce a new perspective to the analysis of seismic risk. I always thought that the “extreme values method, called GUMPBEL” is a sort of black box, because shows results, but it is difficult to infer how they were calculated, so I strive to develop the new approach.

I took advantage of the large amount of literature that I had around me, in Japan, and a good group of Japanese technicians specialized in the area of earthquake engineering and seismology. I revise many papers that talk about, the way to predict the rupture of a fault and how the waves travel along the soil layers.

At the end, the Seismic Energy Released Method ( SEREM ) was obtained. The interesting method allows the researcher to estimate, using actual (“real”) data of seismic hazard in a region. But in the process, concomitantly, seismic performance curves are obtained in the region , allowing the researcher to analyze, how region realeses seismic energy, over time .

100 years of seismic data, measured with equipment and 500 years with historical data, were analyzed and it turns out that the seismic behavior is correlated, over the centuries. It is possible to observe a defined pattern of behavior and also it is subjected to the principles of cyclicity , raised by Charles Francis Richter , died September 30, 1985 . As a result of this approach, curves show the seismic behavior of Ecuador over the centuries, having a pattern, in which, within a century, two seismic reactivations lasting 10 to 15 years occur, and the rest of the time seismic activity is lower.

In 2000, I proposed that seismic reactivation of Ecuador was initiated and lasted until about 2015, the year was determined, taking into account the variability in the beginning of the reactivation process, in the last 6 centuries. Being natural processes, is very uncertain pinpoint dates, but it is possible to identify and study patterns of behavior depending on the data that are available. Subsequently, the study was extended to the other regions of the world and it was determined that the seismic reactivation was not only in Ecuador, it occurs in the whole world.

You want to know what happens with the seismic activity of the world?, The reason of the grade 9, earthquake in Japan, Tsumatra, Chile; the seismic activity in Peru, Mexico, California; the seismic and volcanic activity in Ecuador and Colombia. The answer is, we are experiencing a reactivation of the seismic energy released in the world, in the next years will be critical and afterwards move on to a stage of seismic tranquility.

M.Sc.(TUM), Pst.Gr.(Tokyo),Ing. Lenin Marcelo Moncayo Theurer