THE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF THE PLANET IN APRIL

April was a busy and intense month , the pacific fire belt has been much talk , some earthquakes have occurred,  have left nervousness, pitiful damage and victims in their wake. There are many who are trying to understand this process , but it is complex .

Understanding mathematics and statistics is always easier to understand nature so I have compiled some information to offer you .

In this April the world suffered 841 earthquakes , releasing the energy equivalent of 18 Megatons , What is a Megaton?,  Is the energy released by the explosion of a bomb made of a ton of dynamite,  that is, more or less, 2000 pounds of  TNT.

Globally, there was 1 earthquake higher than Ms.8, 6 earthquakes  higher than Ms.7, 19 earthquakes higher than Ms.6,  200 earthquakes greater than MS.5 and 620 earthquakes greater than Ms.4 . The 65 % of the seismic energy released globally, was freed by the  Chilean earthquake in Iquique.

From all this energy that was released worldwide in April , Chile has the world’s first place with the 76 %  release of seismic energy, this is almost 14 Megatons . Besides the 8.3 earthquake , was another important earthquake of 7.7 and were accompanied by 226 earthquakes over several magnitudes.

New Guinea took the world’s second  place in energy released, beacuse there were, in the vicinity of this place, 4 major earthquakes greater than Ms.7 , (7.6 ,  7.5,  7.4,  7.1) , additionally there were 121 more earthquakes, all of them are equivalent to a explosion of 4 tons of TNT ( Megatons ) .

Mexico also had an earthquake of 7.2 in magnitude, which  was important but fortunately liberated energy level did not exceed 0.4% of Megaton .

Nicaragua trembled with an earthquake of 6.6 and other of 6.1. There were earthquakes in Peru , (7 earthquakes higher than  Ms. 4). There were earthquakes in Argentina , a slightly unusual place for the occurrence of these events as it is quite far from the subduction zone , however had an earthquake of 5 and 8 earthquakes greater than 4 degrees.

The information is gathered from U.S. Geological Survey , USGS, it does a wonderful job in collecting seismic data as well as many other centers in Latin America. I have worked with USGS data for its perennial efforts made by exposing their results . To perform this type of work it is important to have access to a reliable data.

Seismic reactivation proposed in 2000 is demonstrated by the facts , likewise I explained that this would last until about 2015 , I think this is the last part of this step , then the planet will settle , so did the early twentieth century .

www.sismos.co

The Place of Dreams

IQUIQUE NIGHT SITE

A small town in the South Pacific , became the star of world news, its name comes from the Aboriginal word , “Place of dreams ” or ” Relaxation ” , in clear opposition to what was lost in those three horrible earthquake minutes . On April 2014 , off the coast of Iquique ( Chile) , there was a significant earthquake of magnitude 8.2 on Richter, 20 km. depth. It was felt in Chile, Bolivia and Peru , there was a possible tsunami warning.

Epicenter Iquique

This earthquake is caused due to the interaction between the giant tectonic masses called Nazca and South American plate , which imperceptibly remain in an eternal dance in a titanic struggle . The Nazca plate is going beneath the South American one and this lustful symbiosis, gives origin to the vast and beautiful American continent.

The orography of our continent has been sculpted through this cyclopean pugilism , is important to remember that Nazca moves with a lightness of 6.5 mm / year, precisely against his antagonist , the South American plate does the same in the opposite direction with a lightness of 7.5 mm / year.

IQUIQUE FROM A SATELLITE

There are so many problems we are facing in South America, that almost goes unnoticed that we are witness of the most historic and prehistoric colossal fighting, bringing  to a contemporary language, we would make the comparisson with  being in the front row, of a confrontation between Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali.  We, Southamericans,  have seen and experienced the largest earthquakes in the world ; as the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in the area of ​​Maule in Chile, in 2010: or the 9.5 magnitude earthquake in 1960 , in Chile, or the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in 1906 off the coast of Esmeraldas , Ecuador .

THEATER iQUIQUE

The earthquake in Iquique had interesting features , many peolpe try, by all means, to predict the occurrence of an earthquake, every time the earth moves,  the worries begins , some people think that  many tremors could be a warning of a larger earthquake. In the case of Iquique, it was like this, the so called premonitor tremors .

In mid March , most of South America began shaking , and during two weeks, it was heard about  earthquakes in Chile, Ecuador , Peru and Venezuela and the doubts began.  Some tremors are premonitory of a largest movement,  according to certain scientific theories ,but it is not always like this.

Iquique Beach, beautifull sight

I have fought strongly against the term “seismic swarm” because it doesn’t describe the mechanism of the fault rupture. To determine that we are facing a premonitory earthquake, there must be a coordinated and related hypocenters, the analysis should conclude that there is a spatial and temporary correlation. If this corelation exists , we can infere that the tremors could be premonitors .

On April 16, there was an earthquake of Mag. 6.7, escorted by 60 earthquakes greater than Mag. 4 and 25 earthquakes grater than Mag 5 .  Then, on 17th , then 22nd , then 23rd, there were earthquakes higher than Mag 6.2, each of these days.  According to the information provided by the USGS, the hypocenters migrated to the north, and coincidentally the strongest earthquake of April 1st, was the northernmost too . After the big earthquake, the region continues moving, there was  a  Mag 7.6 earthquake on the 3rd of April.

The Iquique earthquake leaves us lessons, for example, how premonitory earthquakes shows a gradual increament of energy released, up to the peak, when the biggest movement breaks .

Iki iki is the origin of the name of the city of 170,000 inhabitants, in Tarapaca region which has 2.5 square Kilometers of an industrial park called ZOFRI due to the free zone of Iquique.

 

subduction zone in iquique

The Nazca Plate, in Iquique, makes an unusual nook, destroying the logic of the wises which want all to elucidate, turns the corner enigmatically and the entire region shows the greatest difference of heights between the two tectonic plates, which suggests to me strongly that there is great accumulation of folds and seismic energy contained in the site. Simple minds are doomed unintelligibility against divine portents

What else will teach us this land, we know so little?.

 

HELL THAT CAME WITH NOTICE

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.

THE WORLD IS GOING THROUGH A SEISMIC REACTIVATION

 

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

 

 

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