Major earthquake in Peru

August 16, 2007 8:08 AM

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Peru in the Ica region, south of the capital of Lima. Ica, Chincha and Pisco have been hardest hit, although the pavement rippled in downtown Lima as well. BBC (first link) and CNN have been reporting about 336-7 dead, but my uncle (in Lima) says that many towns south of San Bartolo have simply disappeared into rubble.
posted by LMGM (27 comments total)

Oh, and the Pisco region is where pisco is grown, Peru's grappa-like liquor (the precise origins are debated between Peru and Chile).
posted by LMGM at 8:11 AM on August 16, 2007

I was in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima the day before the earthquake hit. When I first heard there was an earthquake, I wished I was still in Lima because I've never experienced an earthquake, but then I saw the death toll and felt like an asshole. How often if the Ica area hit by earthquakes? Is this something that happens periodically or is this a fluke?
posted by Falconetti at 8:12 AM on August 16, 2007

Here is the frontpage story from El Comercio, Peru's largest daily newspaper (in Spanish). La República's website seems to be down right now.
posted by LMGM at 8:13 AM on August 16, 2007

Peru has a long history of earthquakes, and it's not uncommon to experience tremors. However, stuff of this magnitude is rare. Back in 1970, an earthquake of similar magnitude buried an entire town in the mountains.
posted by LMGM at 8:15 AM on August 16, 2007

For what it's worth, USGS is calling it a magnitude 8.0.
posted by mediareport at 8:21 AM on August 16, 2007

More from the USGS. Photos from the NYT.

Peru sits on a subduction zone, where the Pacific plate is plunging under the continental plate. Earthquakes in California, by contrast, are produced by strike-slip faults, where the two plates are sliding past one another.
posted by rtha at 8:23 AM on August 16, 2007

One of the most depressing and frustrating experiences I ever had was taking a bus south from Lima to Pisco. Lima is a huge, sprawling metropolis and shantytowns and ramshackle little communities fan out all around it - I only saw the southern part of it, but was really shocked at the poverty and hopelessness of it, not to mention the magnitude of it. Miles and miles and miles. The people living there (granted, as seen through a bus window), seemed to be worse off than in any of the other places I visited in Peru, including many of the little villages in the Andes and communities in the Amazon. It just doesn't seem like there could be any way those clay and cardboard and wood and scrap metal structures could have survived the earthquake. I wouldn't be surprised if the number keeps climbing - hopefully, though, those buildings just sort of fell apart gracefully without causing too much injury. One hopes that the government will be able to make something more stable and sustainable out of the tragedy, but it's Garcia, and he doesn't really seem like the type to invest in something like that. Also, earthquakes suck.
posted by billysumday at 8:26 AM on August 16, 2007

Video results for "Peru earthquake" right now, watch the relevant ones quick before the "camera pointed at CNN" and "earthquake tribute flower video" busy bodies flood the tubes.
posted by brownpau at 8:26 AM on August 16, 2007

387 dead so far.
posted by signal at 8:29 AM on August 16, 2007

Much more to come I imagine.

[general feelings of concern and inability to do much]
posted by edgeways at 8:57 AM on August 16, 2007

horrible... here's hoping the death toll doesn't rise too much...
posted by amberglow at 9:00 AM on August 16, 2007

I've experienced a few quakes here in Los Angeles, but even the Northridge quake 'only' had a magnitude of 6.7. I'm guessing a 7.9 or 8.0 quake would be a huge disaster in any populated area.

I really hope they've seen the worst of it.
posted by maryh at 10:20 AM on August 16, 2007

From the eyewitness accounts linked to in the CNN story:

There were two massive shocks, which lasted for some time. It felt like around two minutes in total with a short break in between. Usually you don't feel a tremor when outside, but we were outside and the pavement was rippling. We fled to the park where the ground continued to move under our feet. What was even more frightening was the roar of the quake coupled with the sky lighting up.

It was surreal. It felt like we had stepped onto the set of a war movie. There was a real sense of fear on the streets. There were people everywhere, and all were afraid of aftershocks and concerned as they could not contact families and friends, as there was no mobile phone reception. We are lucky we live in solid well-built houses, but those living in the shanty towns are not so lucky. We have had two minor tremors since and are expecting more.
posted by maryh at 10:48 AM on August 16, 2007

.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:59 AM on August 16, 2007

(you don't grow pisco. you grow grapes. you make pisco from grapes vis fermentation and distillation).

this is terrible. 7-8 is huge.

according to chilean news internet services are still ok, but mobile phones are pretty much worthless (curiously there seem to be problems with landlines too) (incidentally, despite the implications of that story, skype seems to be down everywhere).

el mercurio also has photos.
posted by andrew cooke at 11:08 AM on August 16, 2007

ah, possible consistent interpretation: mobile phones are jammed across the country due to people checking each other (insufficient capacity), but landlines and internet ok (which is therefore what peruvian emigrants are using to check back home from chile). mobile phones and landlines (and internet presumably) down in worst affected areas.
posted by andrew cooke at 11:26 AM on August 16, 2007

Eek - I was just in Ica about a month ago.

One wonders about the distributions of the victims - earthquakes are fairly common in those parts, and the better buildings are all designed with earthquake safety in mind. The shantytowns, on the other hand...
posted by kickingtheground at 1:46 PM on August 16, 2007

My daughter just got back a week ago. Horrific.
posted by Space Kitty at 3:07 PM on August 16, 2007

Shiiit. I was in Pisco in March. Many of the buildings in and around Pisco were barely standing as it was. This is awful. I think of how kind the people were at the hostal where we stayed. I hope they're OK.

Billysumday, I took that bus ride out of the south side of Lima and I know exactly what you're talking about. Those poor bastards already had it hard enough. I agree, the Andeans seem to have it better... probably because there's water and fertile land.

Anyways,

.
posted by fleetmouse at 3:27 PM on August 16, 2007

.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:34 PM on August 16, 2007

Saw an article that said Richard Stallman was in Peru for an opensource meeting, and no contact has been made with him.
posted by IronWolve at 3:47 PM on August 16, 2007

They were saying on the news that because of the magnitude of the quake and the destruction that it did to the infrastructure that it would be difficult to get aid to the people who need it. Man, this really sucks.
posted by hadjiboy at 9:01 PM on August 16, 2007

What was even more frightening was the roar of the quake coupled with the sky lighting up.

I guess the sky lighting up must have been earthquake lightning due to the piezoelectricity generated by crystals in rock stressed by the earthquake.

But if that's what it was, cellphones must have been pretty unreliable right after the quake regardless of the integrity of the network or volume of calling, because ions in the air would have absorbed the signals.

I have no idea whether such an effect would be likely to last long enough to interfere with emergency responses.
posted by jamjam at 11:45 PM on August 16, 2007

Hmmm.... Here is a site claiming cell phone reception can give you a couple of hours or so of warning of a big quake:

Apart from this, a recent reliable precursor is the mobile telephone. It has been found that about 100 to 150 minutes before the occurrence of an earthquake, mobile telephones start non-functioning or malfunctioning. The timespan indicated is sufficient to take all necessary mitigatory measures.

This quake could be a pretty good test of this idea, I bet.
posted by jamjam at 12:02 AM on August 17, 2007

You'd have to somehow control for the non-functioning for a hour but nothing happened so people forgot. Maybe call logs would reveal a sudden upswing in malfunctions. Otherwise someone should start random sampling now in places like San Fransisco to establish a base line.
posted by Mitheral at 12:38 AM on August 17, 2007

I haven't spoken to my mother about this yet--and it is she who keeps in touch with our relatives in Peru a lot more than I do.
posted by SentientAI at 7:31 AM on August 17, 2007

Existing call logs from all over the place would probably tell the tale right now, wouldn't they, Mitheral?-- thanks for pointing that out.

Now look for businesses to arise in quake prone areas which offer to give you an automated call on your land line whenever cell phone problems with just the right signature occur-- all in exchange for a one time sign-up fee, or, more likely, a small subscription payment.

I'd be very tempted to sign up myself, if I thought the stats were legitimate.
posted by jamjam at 2:04 PM on August 17, 2007