Another bad earthquake in Mexico
- Thread starter blacbird
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Yes, my hometown wasn't affected, but the news are very bad. More than ten cities affected, 20+ buildings destroyed, over 50 dead by now, hundreds more trapped under debris. Entire schools fell down with the kids inside.
Mexico City is built on a drained lake. It is terrible ground during an earthquake, as it tends to liquefy. That's why the buildings were sinking. There was a bigger quake in the mid 1980s that caused something like 10,000 deaths there.
caw
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1985. The death toll has never been clarified because of the magnitude of the disaster. This happened before building regulations, special relief agencies and public information about earthquake protection. In fact, those things started in Mexico because of the 1985 earthquake.
And it happened on the same day.
Hugs, Kaiser. Some art friends were just in Mexico City last week, and now can't reach their local hosts. We were all in college together in Albuquerque NM when the 1985 quake struck, so we remember how bad it was then.
The Ring of Fire is twitching again.
The Ring of Fire is twitching again.
Mexico City had an earthquake drill two hours earlier. They have one every year on the anniversary of the 85 quake. This quake was 32 years and ~6 hours after the 85 quake.
In a quake you should get under something sturdy. You only see a rare person doing that in any of the videos. I understand though. I know to get under something but when we had the 2001 Nisqually earthquake here, I ran down the hall and out the door. I did not want to be trapped in a collapsed building. Emotions overrode intellect.
Many people are injured trying to leave a building because the quake knocks them over.
Intact school desks in Mexico City in a pancaked school held up the floors. Maybe if you are right by an exit you could run, but the evidence based advice is to get under something sturdy and hold on to it.
Sadly there will likely be over 1,000 dead. The USGS has a tool to estimate impact and losses for this size quake in this area.
I am encouraged by how many buildings did not collapse. Mexico has come a long way bringing itself into the 20th/21st century building codes. But there are so many buildings which are nothing but rebar and cement, sometimes with additional floors added over time.
It never stops. It is possible the 8.1 quake transferred stress to this area.
I do hope everyone hears their friends and family are safe soon.
This earthquake could be worse than the 1985 quake. The 85 quake had its epicentre in the Pacific ocean. This quake was almost directly underneath Mexico City.
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This is heartbreaking. I have no words.
My thoughts are with the people of Mexico City right now.
My thoughts are with the people of Mexico City right now.
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This is exactly true. It does not ever stop, nor will it. And one quake can transfer stress to another area, and trigger, eventually, another. This is a big worry in Japan right now: that the monster 2011 shake may have transferred big stress to the south, nearer to Tokyo and other big cities. Seismologists in the California bay area worry that the 1989 Loma Prieta event has stressed any or oall of three major fault zones northward, exactly in the San Francisco and Oakland area.
caw