Word: chiles
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...have to adjust your schedule by much: about 1.26 millionths of a second ought to do it. According to a NASA scientist's computer modeling, that's how much an Earth day should have been shortened by the subterranean upheaval that triggered the Feb. 27 earthquake in Chile. Some basic physics explains why. (See pictures of Chile's massive earthquake...
Ricardo Zapata, a disaster-evaluation chief for the Santiago-based Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), cites three levels of damage in the Chile quake. The first was the collapse of older, pre-1960 buildings, many of which were further damaged because they were constructed too close to one another. The second was the failure of newer buildings like Concepción's apartment high-rises, which, while not pancaking like poorly built structures did during Haiti's 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, in many cases tilted over and broke, because even the strongest foundations...
Still, says Zapata, who is heading up ECLAC's evaluation of the Haiti quake, "given the intensity of Chile's earthquake, it's amazing that there haven't been more damage and deaths than what we've seen so far." Chile has been credited with mandating strict building codes. But even the best earthquake-fitted infrastructure would have trouble withstanding magnitudes much higher than 8.0. The Chile quake, Zapata says, "is off the charts no matter how you look at it," which is why so many bridges and roads have been destroyed there. (See the top 10 news stories...
...Chile's death toll could eventually rise above 1,000. But right now, aside from the rescue process, the biggest issue on the ground is the top priority for any earthquake-battered country: getting food, water and medical aid to the hardest-hit zones. Rescuers were hampered in Concepción over the weekend by tear-gas smoke fired at grocery-store looters - an embarrassing scene that prompted Bachelet to arrange for vendors to give free food away...
Bachelet, a moderate socialist who remains remarkably popular in Chile, hands her office to conservative President-elect Sebastián Piñera on March 11. She is expected to ask U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a relatively small amount of American aid when Clinton visits Chile on Tuesday during her previously scheduled tour of Latin America this week. Clinton will no doubt praise Bachelet's leadership during the emergency - as most Chileans have, despite the apparent tsunami mishap. It will be up to Piñera to put mechanisms in place to make sure Chile...