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Jolie Rouge
04-02-2014, 09:08 AM
Evacuations as Peru volcano rumbles to life
AFP -- 18 hours ago

Lima (AFP) - A volcano in Peru that has not blown its top in four decades spewed more ash skyward on Tuesday, after authorities evacuated villagers to avoid Ubinas's wrath.

The volcano in southwestern Peru blasted back to life causing about 60 villagers from Querapi, near its base, to be relocated Saturday, Ubinas town mayor Pascual Coaquira said.

"We are readying a shelter for refugees from the blasts," he added Tuesday, noting that the whole Moquegua region was on alert.

"The volcano has been emitting a lot of ash all day, the people in the town (of Ubinas) are having some problems breathing, the mayor added. They have been given masks, he said.

Peru's geological and mining agency (Ingemmet) said lava had been building up in recent weeks, and warned locals they should prepare for the possibility of more evacuations.

In the broader Moquegua area plus Arequipa and Tacna, there are about 40 volcanoes, most dormant.

http://news.yahoo.com/evacuations-peru-volcano-rumbles-life-211716844.html;_ylt=A0LEV05teTtTREsAhyRXNyoA;_ylu= X3oDMTB0ZGk2Z2FqBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUD A3N18x

comments

As long as the Misti Volcano doesn't blow ( it would wipe out the City of Arequipa, Peru's second largest City - it's right outside of town ). Misti is at 19,000 plus feet and is the highest and largest of Peru's Volcanos.

...

I wonder how this relatesto the Chilean earthquake. Did the eruption cause the earthquakes or did the earthquakes cause the eruption?



8.2 earthquake hits Chile; Pacific tsunami warning spurs evacuations

A magnitude 8.2 earthquake strikes Chile's northern coast, causing widespread damage. Evacuations are underway as far as Hawaii.
By Fabiola Gutierrez and Chris Kraul
April 1, 2014, 9:58 p.m

SANTIAGO, Chile — A shallow and powerful magnitude 8.2 earthquake rocked Chile's northern coast Tuesday, sparking fires, churning up high waves, causing landslides and cutting power for thousands of people.

A fireman and an elderly heart attack victim were among five people reported dead from the quake, but authorities had yet to assess widespread damage.

Evacuations were ordered in expectation of waves as high as 16 feet along the Pacific coast of Chile, neighboring Peru and elsewhere. An alert was issued for Hawaii, where evacuations were underway late Tuesday, but officials cautioned they did not expect a large wave to hit the state.

The quake struck at 8:36 p.m. local time and was centered about 950 miles from the capital, Santiago, seismologists said. It was triggered from a depth of 12.5 miles, off the coast near the sparsely populated port of Pisagua.

Major damage was reported to Highway A16 between Pisagua and Iquique, a port city of about 182,000 people about 65 miles south. About 300 inmates escaped from a nearby women's prison, officials said.

With the exception of Iquique, the area closest to the epicenter of the quake is largely desert and sparsely populated. Pisagua has fewer than 300 inhabitants, and the town of Arica, about 120 miles north of Iquique, has about 10,600 residents, according to recent census data. The Arica and Parinacota regions where the quake was felt strongly have a combined population of about 215,000 and are known largely for their mining and fishing industries.

The temblor knocked some residents off their feet and frightened a country where massive earthquakes have killed thousands of people. "I have a 14-year-old son and the quake was so strong that we couldn't stay on our feet," said Josefina Pardo, a 40-year-old attorney in Arica, near the Peruvian border. "My boyfriend passed by to look for us and we went to a secure zone. Police passed by houses to tell people to evacuate. People are very afraid. Everyone is fearful of a tsunami and because we have no electric power. We took our dog with us and the evacuation was very rapid and orderly."

Adriana González, a 58-year old seamstress in Arica said: "Everything moved and the power went out immediately. It had been shaking all week and people immediately started running to get away."

Nervous Iquique residents gathered in a soccer stadium, where Tatiana Gonzalez, a 45-year-old secretary, told local news media that the earthquake scattered furniture and possessions at her home. She came with her father, who suffers from Parkinson's disease.

"I was able to sit with my father in his wheelchair, and when we tried to leave, the police passed by to evacuate us to a more secure sector [in the stadium] where there were many families who had just left their homes," she said. "We are not going to leave this place."

The Chilean navy's oceanographic center reported wave heights of 5 feet in Iquique and greater than 6 feet in Pisagua.

Much of the coast borders the oceanic Nazca tectonic plate, which is being pushed under the continental South American plate, creating a geologic hot spot responsible for the creation of the Andes mountains.

That pressure can produce earthquakes greater than magnitude 9, the same class of temblor that caused the 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Japan tsunamis.

Southern Chile produced the most powerful earthquake on record, a magnitude 9.5 temblor in 1960, which killed thousands around the city of Valdivia and brought tsunamis to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. West Coast. A magnitude 8.8 earthquake in southern Chile killed 524 people and destroyed 220,000 homes in 2010.

Swarms of earthquakes off the northern coast, including a magnitude 6.7 shaker that struck March 16, preceded Tuesday's temblor.

But one earthquake expert who has studied the area warned Tuesday that the quake was unlikely to have relieved the enormous pressures that have built up along the massive fault, which he said had not broken in that area since 1877. "It's probably not big enough to have released all of the energy that had been stored up along that locked plate boundary for the last 140 years or so," said Rick Allmendinger, a Cornell University professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences. "Is this the big one for that area? Or was it a foreshock to a presumably even bigger earthquake?"

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-chile-quake-20140402,0,495305.story#ixzz2xkI0nbo9

Jolie Rouge
04-02-2014, 08:40 PM
Yet another massive earthquake rocks Chile. A 7.8 aftershock just a day after an 8.2. Looks as if this one is inland which makes it even worse. Tsunami warnings are now up for their coast and possible other areas later... Please pray for the people of Chile!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000p27i#summary

Jolie Rouge
04-13-2014, 08:36 PM
Fire Races Through Hills of Chilean Port City
By PASCALE BONNEFOY - APRIL 13, 2014

SANTIAGO, Chile — A voracious fire that spread through the hills of the port city of ValparaÃ*so left at least 12 people dead and more than 500 families homeless on Sunday, a day after it forced the evacuation of thousands of others.

The fire began on Saturday in a forest on one of the city’s many steep, heavily populated hills. Strong winds and high temperatures quickly turned it into an uncontrollable blanket of flames that covered the colorful maze of wooden shacks and houses on the city’s hilltops.

The area’s topography and narrow roads made it hard for firefighters to fight the blaze on the ground, and the winds and intense heat made it impossible for aircraft to contribute to the operation. By Sunday morning, the fire was largely under control, officials said. But the residents of hundreds of more homes were evacuated later in the day when the fire started up again on some of the hills.

“This is a tremendous tragedy and perhaps the worst fire in ValparaÃ*so’s history,” President Michelle Bachelet said after arriving at the scene on Sunday morning to meet with regional authorities and emergency officials to assess the damage and coordinate relief plans.

She said that 2,000 troops had arrived to help maintain order and that 1,250 firefighters were scouring the city’s hilltops to put out any remaining flames. With the wind and raging flames dying down, 17 aircraft were also able to join the operation.

Ms. Bachelet declared a state of emergency for the ValparaÃ*so region on Saturday night, putting the military in charge of public security and the evacuation.

This is the second catastrophe that Ms. Bachelet has faced since she took office more than a month ago. On April 1, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck northern Chile, leaving six dead and much devastation.

Eight shelters were set up to receive the nearly 10,000 residents who had fled the area near the fire. Many returned to their homes on Sunday, but hundreds of families were left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

ValparaÃ*so is home to the national legislature and one of Chile’s main ports. The historic center of the picturesque city of 250,000 people was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2003. That area was not affected.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/world/americas/chilean-port-city-fire.html?_r=0

Jolie Rouge
10-04-2014, 02:31 PM
The Mystery of Ancient Designs in the Desert Just Got More Interesting (VIDEO)

Published: Sep 30, 2014, 4:04 PM EDT

Giant drawings in the earth called geoglyphs, like Peru’s Nazca Lines, have perplexed scientists for decades.

Recently, through the help of Google Earth, researchers identified more than 50 never-before-seen geoglyphs in northern Kazakhstan.

(MORE: Will the Sleeping Giant Awaken?)

The shapes, which include circles and squares, range in size from 300 to 1,300 feet in diameter.

Since their discovery, archaeologists from Kazakhstan and Lithuania have been using radar to try to better understand the seemingly alien designs. While overall still a mystery, researchers believe some of the sites where the designs have been discovered were used for ancient rituals.


http://www.weather.com/news/science/nature/ancient-mysterious-designs-discovered-video-20140930?cm_ven=FB_SCI_JB_10214_7