8.8-magnitude quake sends Chile warning to the Ring of Fire

By Joshua Wilwohl / josh@theklaxon.com / 02.27.2010

Updated on: 02.28.10 at 1:42 pm

The massive earthquake that rocked Chile Saturday and caused a ripple effect of tsunami warnings across the Pacific shows natural disasters are still much of a threat as any terrorist attack.

The 8.8-magnitude quake that killed at least 700 and injured scores in the South American country, juxtaposes with the most recent scenario in Haiti. The difference, however, is Chile was prepared. The BBC reports that Chile’s National Emergency Office (Onemi), who is responsible for coordinating responses for disaster situations, said, “Chile is a seismic country. So, we must be prepared!”

As such, though the offshore Maule, Chile, quake measured 500 times stronger, according to reports from the Southern California Earthquake Center, its initial result is about 500 times weaker than Haiti’s Jan. 12, 7.0 quake that left at least 200,000 dead.

In the past decade, the world has experienced devastating natural disasters: the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Haiti earthquake in 2010, the Portuguese floods in 2010 and now the Chile earthquake.

For each of these emergencies, governments either were ready for immediate action or failed its people with devastating consequences. The latter being a majority of the cases.

In Hawaii, though, where the Chile earthquake initially triggered a tsunami alert Saturday, the state seemed fully prepared—informing island-goers as early as 6:30 a.m. to seek shelter on higher ground “to protect life and property.”

The initial reaction Saturday caused alarm to residents and visitors on the Hawaiian islands and sparked a potential exodus of 100,000 people.

In the end, it was nothing: “Just a ripple,” as one person in Waikiki, a neighborhood of Honolulu, informed The Klaxon.

Nonetheless, is there a way to improve preparedness initiatives—or mitigation strategies—against Mother Nature? Of course. Governments must recognize and realize the effect of nature and, as a result, prepare. Officials are highly terror centric in the wake of Sept. 11. This is not a bad thing. It’s just a distraction to emergencies equally important.

More information from the U.S. Geological Survey here.