Chile's earthquake

In need of repair

Chile counts the cost of a devastating earthquake and makes plans for recovery

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Readers' comments



The 1985 earthquake was a turning point for Mexicans to try a real democracy in a oil rich nation. Then the Mexican Federal Govt asked the international financial institutions for a moratorium on its foreign debt. Since 1994, Mexico joined Canada and USA as NAFTA´s partner. But it wasn´t enough to spin economic gowth - in the last 15 years México averaged only 3% real GDP. Chileneans -without oil reserves and with Bolivia and Peru as neighbors - came a long way from dictatorship to democracy- are a text book case on sound international trade, transparency, education and governance. I´m positive that they will overcome Mother Nature´s bad temper, stand on their own strenghts, recover growth and keep being Latin America´s role model nation. My condolences to Chileneans but I´m sure they will come out stronger and be a surprise at FIFA´s World Cup. Jose Mari


Unfortunately the Chilean earthquake only serves to exacerbate the tremendous gap between the rich and poor in this country. Very little help is shown coming from the affluent people donating time, money, food and other resources to this national disaster. My hat is off to the college students who have set up centers to gather foodstuffs, blankets, tents and clothing! They are proof positive that their generation really comes together in times of emergencies such as this.
I'm a U.S. expat who's resided in Chile for the last 14 years. I've tried to give what little I can as am retired and live on a fixed income.


Wouldn't it be PURRFECT, if the US & NATO Forces were all pulled out of Iraq & Afghanistan & moved to Haiti & Chile, to assist these earthquake ravaged nations with their over-stretched relief efforts??

Yes, wouldn't it be idyllic if armies around the globe threw away their guns & armaments & instead offered their services & man-power to help needy nations survive their calamities rather than blowing each other to bits??

Too bad the world doesn't work that way..


I forgot to mention that the one thing that intensity does not account for is the duration of shaking. Obviously, if a building is taking damage with every cycle of ground shaking, then it will be more seriously damaged by a longer earthquake. Earthquakes in subduction zones, such as this one, often result in long duration shaking and this will cause more damage than one might expect from just looking at the moment magnitude, the peak ground acceleration or the shaking intensity.



With regard to the moment magnitude (M8.8), it is a measure of the total energy released by the fault, so it cannot be recalibrated depending upon your location. You are thinking about intensity, which is the local effect of the earthquake and will be lower if the earthquake is deeper and will decrease as you move away from the fault (in general, anyway). From the initial maps put out by the USGS, the peak intensity (MMI scale) was around VII or VIII, which is lower than that in the recent Sichuan earthquake (up to IX)(M7.9) or even the Haiti quake where intensity was IX or X (M7.0). Please note that these shake maps are not that detailed, so final conclusions may vary.


@ NotHere:

But that's just the inborn beast in us: the down-side of human nature at work everywhere. Passing the buck, playing the blame-game, scape-goating, finger-pointing, mudslinging, or... ad nauseum.

So don't be surprised, when your wish comes true - & sooner than later too!

Carlos Collaco

I had posted an earlier comment to The Economist's first article on the calamity that befell Chile.I was cautious then as news were still sketchy and predictably the scale of human loss and material damage only just beginning to unfold.

The days that elapsed have meanwhile confirmed a limited death toll and extensive damage to infrastructure and housing.
Unfortunately more than a few failures in the official response - which may have contributed to additional tsunami-related deaths - have also come to light.
Perhaps it underscores that which is widely known - no level of preparedness is high-enough for an unforeseen (though likely) event this sudden, severe and mind-boggling.
Everyone who experiences at that 8.8 magnitude is too shaken, dazed by it, and afraid of aftershocks, to begin to think straight.

The upside is truly the fact Chile is a middle-income nation, fairly advanced and technically skilled to cope with the reconstruction effort.A mammoth task that will require years of dedicated work and finance which the incoming administration will obviously prioritise.

The image that sticks with me and will linger on as symbolic of this earthquake is the apartment block that toppled over to lie flat on the ground.
Any urban area around the world has any number of high-rises just as Conception.
That one building is likely to have had a structural weak point to cause it to collapse in that particular mode.


Surely the wave was not a tidal wave, i.e. caused by the moon, as the article suggests, but an earthquake-induced tsunami?


Dear Sirs,

I would like to see a positive spin on the spat of current calamities. First, may God bless the souls of those who passed from these natural disasters. But, there has to be a positive from all this and that is the economic stimulus that these countries should realize once the rebuilding takes place. Jobs will be had and monies poured in to the local economies (and hopefully not into the pockets of corrupt officials). Is anyone looking into this effect?


Since all buildings and highways constructed in recent times in Chile share similar technical standards it seems obvious that the reasons why some have failed have more to do with poor ground conditions than with design shortages (airport excluded ).

This is just a minor expression of the lack of serious land use planning in Chile with the main being the quasi criminal coastal urban planning that forgets where this territory is geologically located.

Many victims and much destruction could have been avoided with proper assessments of natural risks, a pending subject for our sorry country.

Gonzalo Mato


To Rasmus1967.
Santiago's temblor intensity was 8 or higher, and lasted 90 sec or more.The area with intensities 7.5 - 8.8 was felt by over 60% of the population of Chile. The tsunami's first wave hit 19 min after the jolt. No doubt were some errors on several fronts: 1)the Navy initial report of no tsunami risk, that was stated live by the President around 2.5 hrs after the quake; 2) initial government overconfidence they can handle the situation without proper assessment; and 3) relative delay of vital supplies to remote areas.
Everyone should closely study Chile's horrendous experience and its response to avoid mistakes (USA and all Pacific basin countries).

A Lebedev

I suggest you read the comparisons, that the WSJ draws between Haiti & Chile. If you dislike Friedman, that will be not pleasant =)

M. Otero.

Just yesterday I met a guy who proclaimed that HAARP (a US research project on the magnetosphere) was altering the world's magnetic fields and causing earthquakes on purpose. Being open-minded, I decided to check the theory out. It turns out not only is the base itself open to the public, but that as common sense tells you, affecting the ionosphere would require an enormous power source, which is nowhere to be found, unless you believe in invisible (and unmeasurable) energy, in which case well, you can probably "prove" just about anything.

I'll be sure to put that theory on my mental list of freak shows right besides creationists and people who believe that increasing the levels of certain atmospheric gasses does not change the workings of said atmosphere the slightest. (I'm looking at you NotHere)


Let us all drink the good chilean wine, waiting for the climate morons to blame who knows who...and side with the hard working chilean people in this tragedy.


Even though I am from Turkey, I really felt the same pain and devastation that people of Chile has encountered in the recent earthquake. It was really a disturbing situation for a country which was an inch far away from joining OECD and having a great economic growth and development until this unfortunate catastrophe happened.
I hope the people and political figures of Santiago maintain their strength and recover from this natural disaster with a greater strength and maintain their strength in developing their welfare and socio-economic development much firmly.


It is very hard to prepare for a 8.8 quake, but in Santiago, where it must have been about 6.2-6.3, the damage was surprisingly minimal, and the builders of the few damaged houses will be held to account. The tsunami warning system has much room for improvement.


The main damages was caused by tsunami besides oldest buildings, most of them at down-towns of the cities, fortunately many buildings have resisted 8.8 earthquake like in this pictures. Does not meant inside of the buildings furnitures are in their right place, even partition walls, buildings are designed to absorb the earthquake energy, that means, depending of their tall the displacement of the top of the building can varies 20-30cm. or more as a part of the designing criteria.

I am sure most of newest buildings/highways that has been collapsed, is due to a bad construction/design practices, so the owners, Construction and Real Estate companies must repair them at their own cost.

Luis P.
Civil Engineer, University of Chile.


I am waiting for someone on some news network to blame the Chile earthquake on climate change and "The World's Biggest Polluter." Won't be long now.



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