Chile Earthquake and Tsunami - Some Science Videos

Some interesting videos about the earthquake in Chile, just to understand a bit of science.

The first one shows how shockwaves propagate from the epicentre in Chile to the monitoring station at the University of Portland, OR.



This second animations shows the propagation of the tsunami wave across the Pacific... and why in the end the waves were not dangerous to inhabited areas.



And finally, a time-lapse video taken in Hawaii showing the attenuated tsunami. One thing everybody should know by now is that the initial warning of a tsunami arriving is that the water flows away from the beach first.

Why So Many Earthquakes This Decade?

While Haiti is still sorting out the chaos from its January earthquake, the Earth suffers another massive quake in Chile. At a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale this is one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. Concerns about a tsunami spreading across the Pacific have abated and the Chilean authorities claim they have the resources to handle the catastrophe.

Why are we having so many earthquakes recently? Is it just that the media likes to report dramatic and tragic events, or has there been a quantitative increase? The graph from USGS tells a worrying story.



Why So Many Earthquakes This Decade?