Word: tremors
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...thing Haiti needed. A 6.1-magnitude aftershock struck the country shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 20, barely a week after the capital Port-au-Prince was flattened by a massive earthquake that killed as many as 200,000 and left 1.5 million homeless. Aid groups fear that the tremor--the worst of the dozens of aftershocks that have hit Haiti since the quake--could hinder the delivery of food and water. About 4,000 additional U.S. troops have been pledged to Haiti to help deliver aid, bringing the total...
...travel from the epicenter to a seismic station where it can be detected. P waves don't give you a whole lot of notice, but even a little bit can help. In California, gas lines in many homes are now equipped with P-wave detectors, which sense a coming tremor and shut off the inflow valve to prevent fires and explosions if the house is shaken severely...
Much to the disappointment of pet lovers, the celebrated ability of animals to predict quakes before they happen is not all it's said to be. It's true that animals are more sensitive to shaking than humans are, so they may feel a tremor a few seconds before we do. But you need the right animal in the right spot at just the right moment, and even then, that detection doesn't buy you much extra time. Nonetheless, Blanpied says, the research goes...
...other instruments that are already in place and always being improved to build the best map possible of the planet's interior and at least narrow the predictive window of when quakes are likely to happen. They can also use these data to anticipate how severe the next tremor, whenever it comes, is likely to be. This can help drive policy decisions like improving building codes, reinforcing infrastructure and zoning some areas as unsuitable for development. That's hardly the same as precise predicting, but if your home or your life is the one that's spared, it's plenty...
...Pariaman's remote hamlet of Pulau Koto, which had been interred by a 30-ft.-high (10 m) landslide, I met Amin Dullah, a 40-year-old fishmonger, who crouched under a tarp with his 5-year-old daughter. When the tremor struck, Dullah fled his house with his 2-year-old son Fajar. But he was soon inundated by two waves of earth and lost his grip on the boy. Two days later, Fajar's body was found. Only six of Dullah's 31 neighbors survived. Marooned in such an isolated place, they had no idea that tragedy extended...