When Felipe Aron grad first heard about the earthquake in his home country of Chile, he was very excited. Aron had been researching the northern segments of the fault as part of his PhD in structural geology and was waiting for the plates to slip. When he found out that the earthquake had affected the southern section, where his family lives, his excitement turned to concern.
“It’s a sweet and sour feeling,” Aron said. “It’s exciting because it’s something that I’ve been studying, but it’s also impossible to feel happiness. It’s a huge contradiction in my case.”
Prof. Richard Allmendinger, earth and atmospheric sciences, is one of Aron’s professors. An expert on earthquakes, he says that the Chilean earthquake was the fifth largest in recorded history, 1,500 times the size of the Haitian earthquake that struck in January, killing an estimated 230,000 people.
Though much larger than the Haitian earthquake, the Chilean earthquake had far fewer fatalities. Allmendinger attributes this to the shallow depths of the seismic plates in Haiti, which don’t allow the energy to be absorbed as well. He also gives credit to the Chilean government’s enforcement of building codes.
“The main reason for the comparatively greater destruction in Haiti without a doubt is poor building codes and poor enforcement,” he said. “One sees this pattern over and over again. Relatively small earthquakes produce huge loss of life in underdeveloped countries. Chile, in contrast, has stringent building codes and they enforce the building codes as strictly as anywhere in the world.”
To educate his students about the catastrophe, Allmendinger devoted yesterday’s lecture exclusively to the earthquake. Allmendinger has also created a web page to inform students outside his class about the earthquake.
Barbara Rojas grad also created a website, along with two friends. Rojas’ website features information about programs in Chile that are helping those in need. She is currently talking to Cornell administrators about having the link posted on the University’s website. She has also sent the link out to friends and fellow students in the astronomy department.
According to Rojas, Cornell has a small Chilean community composed mostly of graduate students. The Chilean Association, a club she participated in last year, had only 30 members and only one undergraduate that she can remember. This year, the University did not recognize the club as an official organization because it missed a crucial deadline for registration.
“We would like to do more stuff, it’s just that there aren’t that many people,” she said. “This is the easiest and fastest way: for people to donate money to organizations that are already working in Chile. It’s more efficient.”
Many Chileans who attend Cornell move back to their own country after graduation, Rojas said. Valeria de los Rios Ph.D ’05, who lives in Santiago, experienced the earthquake firsthand.
“Since Chile is country of earthquakes, I was used to them. But this time the movement was worse than ever: much stronger and longer than I was used to,” she said in an email. As a child, she experienced the earthquake that struck the region in 1985. This time, she was a parent taking care of her daughter.
“When I realized that the thing was serious, I ran to my two-year-old daughter and took her,” de los Rios said. “Then, I couldn’t move anymore: I heard the sound of crystal breaking, and I felt that I was going to fall down. I asked my husband to hold us firmly. When the movement was over, I was trembling.”
Her family made it through the earthquake safely. At Cornell, de los Rios was the secretary of the Chilean Association. She says she has received emails from former professors and friends, asking if she is aright.
Aron, who is on a fellowship from the Chilean government, plans to travel back to his home country of Chile this summer. Rather than visiting his family in the south, he will be doing research on one of the northern segments of the same fault. He hopes to help Chile prepare for such disasters in the future.
“I always thought that there weren’t that many relationships between earth science and society,” he said. “But in the case of earthquakes, you can really help society by providing tools to help prepare for them and predict them.”
building codes.
“The main reason for the comparatively greater destruction in Haiti without a doubt is poor building codes and poor enforcement,” he said. “One sees this pattern over and over again. Relatively small earthquakes produce huge loss of life in underdeveloped countries. Chile, in contrast, has stringent building codes and they enforce the building codes as strictly as anywhere in the world.”
To educate his students about the catastrophe, Allmendinger devoted yesterday’s lecture exclusively to the earthquake. Allmendinger has also created a web page to inform students outside his class about the earthquake.
Barbara Rojas grad also created a website, along with two friends. Rojas’ website features information about programs in Chile that are helping those in need. She is currently talking to Cornell administrators about having the link posted on the University’s website. She has also sent the link out to friends and fellow students in the astronomy department.
According to Rojas, Cornell has a small Chilean community composed mostly of graduate students. The Chilean Association, a club she participated in last year, had only 30 members and only one undergraduate that she can remember. This year, the University did not recognize the club as an official organization because it missed a crucial deadline for registration.
“We would like to do more stuff, it’s just that there aren’t that many people,” she said. “This is the easiest and fastest way for people to donate money to organizations that are already working in Chile. It’s more efficient.”
Many Chileans who attend Cornell move back to their own country after graduation, Rojas said. Valeria de los Rios Ph.D ’05, who lives in Santiago, experienced the earthquake firsthand.
“Since Chile is a country of earthquakes, I was used to them. But this time the movement was worse than ever: Much stronger and longer than I was used to,” she said in an e-mail. As a child, she experienced the earthquake that struck the region in 1985. This time, she was a parent taking care of her daughter.
“When I realized that the thing was serious, I ran to my two-year-old daughter and took her,” de los Rios said. “Then, I couldn’t move anymore: I heard the sound of crystal breaking, and I felt that I was going to fall down. I asked my husband to hold us firmly. When the movement was over, I was trembling.”
Her family made it through the earthquake safely. At Cornell, de los Rios was the secretary of the Chilean Association. She says she has received e-mails from former professors and friends, asking if she is aright.
Aron, who is on a fellowship from the Chilean government, plans to travel back to his home country of Chile this summer. Rather than visiting his family in the south, he will be doing research on one of the northern segments of the same fault. He hopes to help Chile prepare for such disasters in the future.
“I always thought that there weren’t that many relationships between earth science and society,” he said. “But in the case of earthquakes, you can really help society by providing tools to help prepare for them and predict them.”
Original Author: Juan Forrer