Tsunami hits Chile as Pacific rim braces for impact

[fascisthunter]

Source: AFP

AFP - A tsunami crashed into Chile's coast Saturday in a potential portent of disaster across the vast Pacific ocean as nations went on alert for towering waves generated by a killer earthquake.

Sirens blared in French Polynesia to warn residents to find higher ground as a tsunami watch went into effect across the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" after the 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile, which left at least 122 people dead.

Nations along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Japan implemented emergency plans that were beefed up after the Indian Ocean disaster of 2004, when a series of immensely destructive tsunamis killed more than 220,000.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20100227-tsunami-hits-chile-pacific-rim-braces-impact

[Cleita]

1. Surfs up!

How many daredevil surfers do you think will try to ride the big waves?

[liberation]

4. Why on earth did you think that comment was even remotely appropiate?

stay classy...

[Cleita]

6. I was thinking freepers might enjoy the moment. My bad.

We get all these freeper idiots from redneck havens in the Central Valley here on our beaches on holiday. They fill up our ERs every weekend. They destroy nesting grounds and wild life habitat with their dune buggies and other destructive motorized beach crap. They don't know how to surf yet try to go after the big wave. Yet our local business people block any attempts by the government to curtail these practices because they miss the money they bring. If I had said that locally here, people would get it. Sorry, I forget we are coast to coast.

[liberation]

7. I live right next to the coast in Nor Cal, and I surf....

... I fail to see what rednecks with foamies have to do with your lack of decorum.

[Cleita]

9. Well, I guess according to you I'm a rude person, so just let's leave it at that.

Have a nice day and when you get a sense of humor check back with me, but as you have already noted I do indulge in gallows humor so that might be too much for your little sensitive sense of decorum

[Ecumenist]

25. Wow, Cleita...I HATE when people refuse to understand the

fragility of coastal habitats. What county are you in? And let me say, that although it is a little on the black and graveyard humour, I have to admit I chuckled out loud and snorted too!! Stay safe, girl, if you're in any potential tsumani area.

[Cleita]

29. San Luis Obispo near Pismo Beach.

They actually show picture of surfers and people on the beach in Hawaii a couple of hours before the Tsumani was supposed to arrive. The authorities had to bull horn them from helicopters to get them out of the water and up to higher ground. I didn't bother to go down to the beach to see if anything was going on.

[iamjoy]

23. I Wondered That Myself

I don't see it as funny - even though I'm not opposed to dark/gallows humor.

It happens when hurricanes are close - it seems like there are always some people with more guts than sense who think it's an opportunity for sport.

[AllyCat]

2. Holy cow, not again.

Poor people. I feel so badly for all those getting hit by yet another disaster. About all we have in the midwest is tornados and at least we have a little bit of warning and somewhere to go in potential escape. I can't imagine living with this threat every day.

[OsirisIndigo]

3. A connection between weeks Solar filament and today's Chilean EQ

Here is what I hope is a really good cataloged summary of the event from the original Filament and auroras to the EQ and the ongoing bombardment that is being recorded at SOHO right now.

Source

[meeshrox]

5. Someone posing a question: Is there a connection?

and assuming that there is an actual connection is ridiculous...they asked a question. I would be interested to see if someone has data to back up the claim. None of the quotes in the link suggested there is a connection except the question-poser. I don't think that solar activity is strong enough to cause tectonic shifts.

That is a great description of a filament and the auroras...they really are gorgeous, and I've never seen spirals before...has that been an increasing phenomenon with solar activity? Or have I been away from astronomy too long to remember seeing that before?

However, we know that the earthquake occurred at a convergent plate boundary, in an area where earthquakes happen frequently. The coincidence of timing here does not mean that there is a connection.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. It's apparently a possible connection that is being seriously considered...

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUSMIN33A..01M

But googling cmes and earthquakes also seems to bring the fundy whackos and 2012 fanatics out in full force: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread547249/pg1

[meeshrox]

17. Thank you!

This is exactly what I was asking for...now I can read it and understand the concept. A simple link to someone posing a question was not evidence...thanks!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Interesting concept.

I'd never heard of this potential connection between solar activity and earthquakes before. Thanks for your post, and welcome to DU!

[Cleita]

10. Welcome to DU.

But be careful posting connections between the earthquakes and other global and climatic events. The psuedo-scientists are out in full force and god forbid you speculate on something that could be possible but isn't in the scientifc journals yet.

[meeshrox]

12. Funny you would refer to refuting such a claim as pesdo science...

That concept does not make sense physically or geologically...

Again, there was no evidence presented other than a temporal coincidence.

Why the attitude towards someone asking for scientific evidence for a scientific claim? Just in the few weeks I've been on DU I've seen hostility towards science...not cool. It's frustrating...

[Cleita]

13. I'm not hostile towards science but I find a lot of people close their

minds to possibilities or thinking outside of the box because of science. Nothing is written in stone and scientists disagree with each other all the time when extrapolating theories using the same facts but reaching different conclusions.

[meeshrox]

15. I didn't specifically mean you were being hostile towards science...

I'm just getting a lot of that here at DU in general...

I think it's a common misconception that science does not allow people to think outside of the box. The ONLY rule in science is the scientific method. Different conclusions are fine, as long as they are reached by testing hypotheses in experiments that can be reproduced for others to try. I do not see science as restrictive, but liberating...

[Fire Walk With Me]

18. Off-topic, but your autosignature makes me think of a "Babylon 5" quote.

"If you have to be delusional, why not go for the really satisfying ones?" -Markus

I guess that jms read it in Sagan first!

[meeshrox]

19. Ha!

That's a great quote...thanks for sharing!

[AlbertCat]

16. people close their minds to possibilities or thinking outside of the box because of science.

Science does not close minds. You can think outside the box as long as you follow the scientific method. Science IS the scientific method. Noticing that 2 events happened one before the other or during the other does not make them connected in any way. You're gonna need real data connecting them.

[Cleita]

21. In my mind the scientific method is the only orthodox absolute in science.

I believe everything else should be fluid because new knowledge will upset pet scientific facts that have passed the scientific method in the past but become obsolete when new knowledge arises that must of course be subjected to the scientific method. I hope you get my drift.

[meeshrox]

24. I hope you get my drift.

Do you mean like continental drift? (Joking) Yes, I think I get your drift.

I am currently writing my master's thesis on just such a thing of testing common-knowledge ideas. There is a long-standing idea in volcanology that, in all of my research, COULD be incorrect. And yet, it's an assumption used in the literature over and over. My thesis brings up the possibility that it could be a bad assumption. It has never been tested with the scientific method; it was simply an idea that snowballed into other papers with no testing whatsoever.

I am all for testing common-knowledge ideas with the scientific method. But there has to be actual testing going on and not speculation. For example, the original post I replied to, about solar activity and earthquakes...someone posted an abstract explaining that more studies need to be done to look into it. After reading that, I'm on-board for studies to be done because now the idea has a science-based possible correlation that can be tested. If the original poster or website writer had given other information (such as ionspheric changes, etc.) to support the claim, I would have been fine.

[Cleita]

28. Speaking of volcanoes, the epi-center of the terremoto, which in Spanish

means really big earthquake as contrary to temblor which is the everyday variety, was seventy miles from the city of Concepcion, although they never said in which direction. However I did find an active volcano on the maps called Volcan Antuco, which is seventy miles east of Concepcion and close to a lake. Watching the security video of the quake in process it had all the attributes of volcanic earthquakes I have experienced, with the prolonged shaking and the string of aftershocks of diminishing energy. If you can find the video of the girl bartender in a San Francisco in the Loma Prieto earthquake of 1989 generated by a fault you will see a snap when all the glasses and bottles crash to the floor as the girl runs for the exit. This is your typical fault earthquake, violent but quick. Comparing the two shows the differences. Now I know that my experience of earthquakes means nothing scientifically but I hope it will get scientists to look at the possibility. The snow pack in the Andes has been melting for some time now.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. The Chilean earthquake had nothing to do with a volcano.

Or melting snowpacks. Or auroras. Or heating metals.

[Cleita]

33. Or maybe all of them. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

35. Maybe it was UFOs, or vampires, or plots with the devil.

But no.

[Cleita]

36. Plots with the devil? Was Karl Rove visiting Chile? n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. 115 km (70 miles) NNE of Concepcion, Chile

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010tfan/

35.846°S, 72.719°W (a few miles offshore)

Compared to

37°24′21″S 71°20′57″W for Volcán Antuco according to Wikipedia.

[Cleita]

34. Thanks. n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. No,

but the filament is really quite interesting.

[wysingm]

20. Pray for Chile

May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.

[Ecumenist]

26. What a beautiful blessing and wish for our fellow man suffering, mourning

and spending time afraid of the future. Lovely, indeed. BTW, Welcome to DU, WYSINGM! Right glad tameetcha!! :hi:

[wysingm]

37. Thanks

Happy to be here. :hi:

[intheflow]

27. This is a lovely first post.

Welcome to DU, wysingm. :hi:

[dyingnumbers]

22. 3.3-Foot Tsunami Predicted At Santa Monica

http://su.pr/1bnNkh

[Cleita]

30. Santa Monica has cliffs. Nothing will be affected. The worst thing that happened

in Santa Monica was in the early eighties during one of our El Nino years when the Santa Monica pier got half washed out to sea because of the almost typhoon like storms.