MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE (not the drink)

---

This morning at around 8am I was woken up by my bed shaking from side to side and the wardrobes rattling. There had been an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale which had its epicentre in the centre of Argentina deep underground and the tremors had reached Santiago. I later saw it on the news, which once the Chilean staff in the hostel had excitedly tuned into to find out what had happened they lost all interest when they heard it had taken place in Argentina, whereas I was very curious and concerned about all those lovely Argentinian people who at 8 in the morning would just be getting ready for bed after a night of partying.

At the time of the earthquake there was a Chilean guy in the dorm who had been staying in the same dorm as me for two nights and we had never spoken until that moment when he jumped out of bed in a fright saying 'this is more than a tremble, it’s an earthquake.' In my opinion there is nothing so natural and stimulating as a good old earthquake to get a Brit and a Chilean talking, especially as us Brits don’t have any experience of earthquakes. In fact, it might need an earthquake to get a Chilean and anybody talking as the Chileans tend to be very introverted. In Argentina it wouldn’t need an earthquake to start a conversation, all it would take was a smile.









I didn’t panic when my bed began to shake as during the tour yesterday I had been given advice about what to do in the event of an earthquake. I was told most of the buldings were anti-seismic so when my bed moved I recognised that it was an earthquake and I felt comforted in my anti-seismic bed, in a anti-seismic room with an anti-seismic floor, an anti-seismic ceiling anti-seismic air conditioning all in an anti-seismic hostel. It seems that I was leaving far too much to chance as it turns out a lot of that isn’t anti-seismic but what is factual is that most buildings in Santiago can move up to one metre in any direction rather than falling over during an earthquake. Chile is the most seismically active country in the world with 5 out of every 25 earthuakes ever taking place happened in Chile, there has been one about every 10 years measuring over 7 on the Richter scale with one measuring 8.8 in 2010 and the Richter scale had to be expanded after Chile had had an earthquake measuring 9.5. There are 1 – 3 tremors a day here in Santiago but most earthquakes happen in the South, North or under the sea. It is for this reason that Chule has such a random collection of buildings built in different eras as they ar regularly destroyed.. The best thing to do inside is stay wher you are of you re inside abuilding, don’t run outside and instead of calling people send texts as the network will be down.

---