Chile Forum

j. Ro wrote:The majority of human deaths in earthquakes come from building colaps. So, if you don't want to die in an earth quake live in a tent in the middle of a field away from any steep slopes and the coast.

eggactly...
the proverbial nail has been hit on its head...
which bears repeating our original sentiment...
(building codes notwithstanding...)

no worries - you can just live in a yurt - on high ground?

but you must fully realize j~ro...
a yurt is far superior to a tent...
although, if you want to consider a teepee - it also is superior!

j. Ro wrote:The majority of human deaths in earthquakes come from building colaps. So, if you don't want to die in an earth quake live in a tent in the middle of a field away from any steep slopes and the coast.

You've got more to worry about than collapsing structures. There is collapsing infrastructure and civil order. In some places you're never more than one good earthquake away from no electricity, no heating gas, no vehicle fuel, no food, no water, no passable roads and bridges. And of course if you're in places like Concepción, the rats and looters tend to come out of the woodwork. Sort of like California except they don't use real bullets.

I wouldn't worry too much about food shortage or disrupted traffic, because I can do something about it, be it hunting, fishing or even scavenging. However, if I wake up under the debris of my house - provided I wake up at all - I have no chance to do anything.

I have just survived the riots in the UK, and have the impression that the Chilean police are much more competent than their British counterpart, and don't think that Chilean looters are viler than British yobs.

pajaritoblanco wrote:I wouldn't worry too much about food shortage or disrupted traffic, because I can do something about it, be it hunting, fishing or even scavenging. However, if I wake up under the debris of my house - provided I wake up at all - I have no chance to do anything.

I have just survived the riots in the UK, and have the impression that the Chilean police are much more competent than their British counterpart, and don't think that Chilean looters are viler than British yobs.

You have much to learn and experience in Chile, Grasshopper.

The lake here gets earthquakes, although we have not had anything big in a while. a few 5.0 or so, about every 6 months, and normally they are offshore so that by the time they get here the conversation normally goes something like this between my wife and I, "was that the wind"?

Then the cat goes trotting to the door, and we know it was a quake. Our cat made it through the 8.0, and is now an expert seismology (she knows at least 30 seconds before any human, and only gets out of bed for a 6.0 or greater).

yea, I would be more concerned about surprise tsunamis that surprise earthquakes in Chile.

Earthquakes rarely kill people. It is mostly very old or poorly constructed buildings falling down that kill people. I read they just upped the earthquake standards for large buildings in Chile, requiring a 30 meter excavation for the foundation under them. I think the old one was like 10 meters.

Around Puerto Varas and the south, with the exception of apartment buildings perhaps, almost everything is a wood structure. Even if poorly built, they tend to hang together better and roll with the quake.

That spammer snuck in while I was writing that last post.

admin wrote:
Around Puerto Varas and the south, with the exception of apartment buildings perhaps, almost everything is a wood structure. Even if poorly built, they tend to hang together better and roll with the quake.

Images: Pto Montt 1960 earthquake

hey, I had lunch at that restaurant last week. It is still missing walls.

We looked into the likelihood of major quakes for our area here in La Serena; it seems the crustal strains due to the subducting oceanic plate do not build up as high here as they do around Santiago-Concepcion, so this area is much less likely to experience those super-quakes. We did feel the last major Concepcion quake here big time, but it did not cause significant damage. We do have frequent small quakes, but I've never even had anything fall off a shelf in almost 5 years.

We do experience the occasional small tsunami, and I wouldn't want to live along the beach (if people needed to evacuate rapidly, forget it, the roads can't handle the traffic and it's a long way to high ground). But once you get up above the first or second terrace you're pretty safe from even a major tsunami.