Technology

In southern Chile by the side of the Michinmahuida volcano is another volcano, the Chaiten.  Chaiten is a small caldera which is a crater formed from the collapse of a volcanic dome.  Its crater measures 3 kilometers wide which is cut across by a river on its southwest side.  This river that flows down to the Chaiten Bay to the Gulf of Corcovado.

On May of 2008, the once sleeping volcano became restive and showed signs of activity and impending major eruption. For more than 9,000 years the volcano was very quiet.  While the eruption was not expected, it did not come as a surprise to the residents around the area.  The visible signs of volcanic activity point to an eruption.  If I chose to locate my furniture business here and needed to evacuate, the best means would be by boat to the next town safely out of the danger zone.  My priority would be lives over property.

Sea transport would be best as it would be the fastest, easiest to navigate and could accommodate more people than land transport.  Air transport was rendered useless because of the plume of ash and steam which rose up to 55,000 feet, said to be twice the average altitude of a cruising plane.  Four thousand people from Chaiten had to be evacuated.  Ash fall affected places up to hundreds of kilometers away, forcing schools, roads and airports to close down and halt operations.  Argentina and Uruguay cancelled flights as airplanes sustained damage from volcanic ash-clouds.  This eruption caused health problems as well both in Chile and Argentina.  Chaiten is a high-threat volcano and this last eruption was explosive mainly because of its caldera-type formation.  Volcanic emissions such as ashes, lahars and pyroclastic materials can be disruptive to travel and agriculture for a period of time.  None were reported killed as people were safely evacuated before the volcano unleashed its fury.  The early signs, the eruption and the continuous monitoring lasted the most part of May.  Chile is into a program of close monitoring of high-threat volcanoes like Chaiten and continuously studying means to lessen the hazard and damage to life and property.  As a resident of the area, I can learn from the lessons of the past, keenly observe the signs of the volcano and listen to government alerts.  Volcanoes have a life of their own.  Chaiten have built up deposits that it released after more than 9,000 years.

On May 12, 2008, a powerful and extremely devastating earthquake had hit Hanwang in Sichuan, China.  Death toll was 71,000 of the dead and tapped in the rubble.  It was the worst to hit Sichuan in 30 years.  Earthquakes in China are a common occurrence.  The Sichuan earthquake is the deadliest since the Tangshan earthquake in 1975 and the strongest since the Chayu earthquake in 1950.  11 million lost their homes, agriculture and livestock loss was estimated to exceed US20 Billion.  The quakes magnitude is 7.5 at the Richter scale with the epicenter at 80 km west, northwest of Chengdu at a depth of 19km.

Unfortunately, there are no preemptive measures that people can take in the event of an earthquake. Earthquakes just hit and not even sophisticated and advanced observatories could accurately predict an earthquake.  The best that people can take are safety measures when caught in buildings or on the road.  The earthquake occurred when seismic activities were felt along the Longmenshan Fault.  The fault tore in 2 sections, one by 7 yards and the other by 4 yards.

I choose Chaiten over Sichuan.  Volcanoes have early warning signs which people can base important decisions on like evacuation and moving to safer places temporarily.  The damage is not as worse as in strong earthquakes and is of shorter duration.  People around volcano areas are conditioned with the possibilities of eruption and evacuation.  What is important is to emphasize to everybody that the safety of life and limb takes precedence over material things like business which may suffer a temporary setback, but all will be well again.  Besides, Chaiten volcano acted up after a long, long time.

No one can predict an earthquake and it can be scary and disruptive to people in earthquake-prone areas which the whole of China is.