By Richard Ruffin
We had an earthquake a couple of days ago. I call it an earthquake, but the seismologists here in Chile call it a tremor. Temblor is the term that they use. But it was a great tremor. Indeed, if it had been any larger ― 0.1 on the Richter scale ― it would have registered as an earthquake, but for now it is merely a tremor of 6.7 degrees.
There were more than 60 aftershocks. Make that 80 now.
It is quite something to be living in such a dynamic place.
Speaking of living in such a dynamic place, there was an eclipse of the moon on the night of Jan. 20-21. As the ball of the moon was completely obscured by the Earth´s shadow, someone started playing the Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd. And the crowd in the town square here in Vicuna went a little bit crazy.
The reason for the blood moon is the Sun´s rays bending around the Earth and this changes the color to red.
That earthquake, tremor, whatever you wish to call it was otherworldly. I ran outside. I could feel the Earth move under my feet. Richard, the owner of the place at which I was staying asked me if I was scared. I answered affirmatively. "I am a little bit scared," I told him. But we were not hit that hard here in Vicuna. The major damage occurred west of here in the city of Coquimbo, which sat just north of the epicenter, about 50 kilometers deep down in the Earth´s crust, under the village of Tongoy.
Anyhow, the Earth keeps turning. And it will keep turning for a long, long time. We have yet to summon the energy and technology to speed it up or slow it down. We have had a full eclipse of the moon, a blood moon, a wolf moon, a baying at the moon kind of moon. And it is good.
I asked a local astronomer if Australia was not a good place to watch the stars, as it is arid and the desert is great for watching the heavens. I think of Ayers Rock as an ideal place to watch the stars. Or so I thought. He told me that because of the sandstorms, the desert is not ideal for observing the heavens. The edge of the desert is. That is why, here in Chile, we have the most observatories and that number is steadily increasing. The largest telescopes are here, as well.
When you Google earthquake a lot of images come up, but two of the countries that are prominent are Japan and Chile, both seismically active and both on The Ring of Fire. Japan is just across the East Sea from Korea. If fact, I remember the earthquake (Chileans would call it a tremor) that struck Gangneung when I lived in Donghae. I think it was a 4.8 that was felt as far as the capital, Seoul, on Jan. 26, of 2007. We had just been watching a BBC special, when it hit. My wife and I were just about to run outside when it ended.
I just did an internet search and I find that the Korean Peninsula may be entering a phase wherein earthquakes become more common, largely due to the workings of man. Fracking is one thing that causes more earthquakes, such as the Pohang earthquake of 2017.
Indeed the Earth is a very dynamic place. But we do not need to relive the Gyeongju earthquake of 779. That was a veritable doozy.
The writer (rick.ruffin@gmail.com) writes from Chile.
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