Earthquake in Chile Sending Tsunamis accross the Pacific (2010)

In February 2010, a massive earthquake hit Chile. The magnitude of the quake was 8.8, one of the largest earthquakes recorded. Soon after the quake tsunami waves rushed though the Pacific ocean threatening Chile itself, Japan, Hawaii, and multiple other countries along the Pacific coast.

The earthquake happened at about 3:34 in the morning in Chile and happened right over the epicenter. The authorities did not send out alarms after the huge quake, and about 30 minutes after tsunami waves were washing people out in Chile and being sent across the Pacific. Because the alarms were not immediately sent out many people did not have time to escape to higher ground. The authorities later sent out an alarm that did give Chileans time to evacuate. The picture below shows the tsunamis direction and strength. After the massive earthquake and warning for the tsunamis went out, Pacific countries also sent out warnings to evacuate people and ships in path of the traveling tsunamis.

This hazard fits the behavioral paradigm and the development paradigm. The quake that hit Chile was very large recorded at Mw 8.8. This large of an earthquake is unusual and sent out tsunami waves which is behavioural because of the nature of the quake. Even though Chile is a developed country, the lack of preparedness from the authorities contributed to the tsunami disaster. Authorities did not sent out an alert right after the massive earthquake which did not give people enough time to evacuate properly. In the complexity paradigm the earthquake was very large and unusual, which evolved into tsunami waves all over the Pacific, the quake happened very early in the morning in Chile and the authorities did not warn people of the tsunami in time which lead to this hazard resulting in high death rates.

http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/27/chile-earthquake-tsunami_n_479393.html