Chile Earthquake - What about Toronto?

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"The prediction is Ohio could have a 7.2," he said, referring to the potential magnitude on the Richter scale. "If we had a magnitude 7, that would be devastating."

Ah, Come on!! Ohio doesn't have the monopoly on earthquakes! Their zones are identical to Toronto, but they've had a few earthquakes recently. Thus, the intelligent response to the classic question: "What about me?"

In Toronto, it's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". In honour of this great attitude, I shall make up a response from a fictional Toronto Emergency Old Boys Drinking Association (TEOB):

TEOB Declares No Chance of Chile M8.8 Hitting Toronto

Toronto - Toronto citizens can sleep safely under their bookcases, knowing that an M8.8 will not happen here.

TEOB Head Marvin Garvin said: "We can't have that M8.8 happening here, since it already happened in Chile."

He also is quoted as saying: "We shall hold the line, and continuing doing what we don't do about the ridiculous chance of an earthquake hitting Toronto. Let other people worry about it!"

Chile Earthquake Tsunami - Run when the water goes!

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It may turn out that there were more deaths due to the tsunami, than the ground shaking. We expect this with subduction earthquakes. With this fault motion, the main ground pulse (Fist of God) is directed down into the earth, resulting in a low PGV on the surface.

This guy survived because he saw all the water disappear, and knew to run like hell! You can't survive a 30 foot wall of water full of cars.

Chile Earthquake - USArray

A rather neat, but useless demonstration of the power of a transportable array. This shows the seismic waves arriving from the M8.8. Close examination of seismic waves allows one to figure out the velocity structure of the crust directly beneath the array. The seismometers are then moved to the next zone.