Maxi Gallegos

Writing 1010
Your Own Monster

A monster is a creature which produces fear or physical harm by its appearance

or its actions. Monsters have been around ever since our ancestors created them, it

varied from being fictional, folklore, mythological, or realistic. Monsters can also be used

figuratively, to discuss a certain event or to describe a person. Around every twenty five

years or so, one of the biggest monsters of them all goes to my home country, creating

mass destruction. Figuratively, the monster I will be discussing is the earthquakes that

happen in Chile, which have affected many families and towns for centuries.

Earthquakes are a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing

great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action.

They suddenly occur when underground rock breaks along a fault. The sudden release

of energy causes seismic waves that make the ground shake uncontrollably. Once two

tectonic plates rub against each other they tend to stick. After a while, the rocks tend to

break due to all the pressure that's built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake

occurs. During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving,

and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the

rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus (on

top of the ground) is called the epicenter of the earthquake. The magnitude of an

earthquake can be measured by the Richter Scale where, the higher the number, the

stronger the earthquake. An estimated 500,000 earthquakes occur a year, with only

about 100,00 being felt. Minor earthquakes occur constantly throughout the world and

can happen almost anywhere. Earthquake-like seismic waves not only can be caused
by the movement of tectonic plates, but also by human activity. Earthquake-like seismic

waves can be caused by explosions underground. These explosions may be set off to

break rock while making tunnels for roads, railroads, subways, or mines. These

explosions, however, don't cause very strong seismic waves.

Earthquakes have occurred ever since mankind has been around, with one of its

first descriptive ones ever recorded in China was in 1177 B.C. For thousands of years

people have tried to predict and prevent earthquakes, but we still can’t really predict

them nor do anything to prevent them. In order to try to keep the gods happy and

prevent another earthquake from happening, early people made sacrifices to their gods

in ancient areas like Delphi, where many earthquakes tend to occur. But by Aristotle’s

time (300s BC) scientists understood that this phenomena was just a natural thing the

earth did. Later on, the ancient Chinese used a certain object to predict future

earthquakes. During the Han Dynasty after 200 AD, a man by the name of Zhang Heng

had invented the world’s first seismograph, which was the first way to ever record an

earthquake. The seismograph was a three foot bronze jar, with eight small dragons

mounted on the top. On the bottom, lied 8 small frogs with opened mouths and looking

up at the dragons. Each dragon had a tiny ball placed at the mouth. When an

earthquake had occurred, the closest dragon’s mouth would open, and the ball would

drop in the frog’s mouth. Depending from what dragon the ball came from, the

seismograph could tell from what direction the earthquake was coming from up to 300

miles away.

Out of all the notable earthquakes that have occurred in the 20th and 21st

century, the ones I will be discussing are three major earthquakes that occurred in Chile
from 1960-2010. Chile is located on a tectonic plate boundary and a subduction zone

known as the Peru-Chile Trench. A subduction zone is where the ocean crust slides

under the continental margin which would cause an earthquake or a volcano. The first

major earthquake to have struck Chile was in 1960, known as the Great Chilean

Earthquake. On May 22, 1960 at about 7PM an earthquake had struck Chile, originating

in the southern part 100 miles off the coast. It is the most intense earthquake ever

recorded, rating a harsh 9.5 on the Richter Scale. The quake resulted from a rupture

along the boundary between the subducting Nazca Plate and South American Plate

approximately 1000 km long and 200 km wide which stretched along half of the

southern coast of Chile.

The earthquake’s occurrence was preceded by four foreshocks bigger than a

magnitude of 7.0, including a 7.9 on May 21 that caused severe damage in the coastal

city of Concepcion, which cut telecommunications to southern Chile. The following day

seismographs detected huge tremors coming from near the city of Valdivia, where the

epicenter was. Many aftershocks occurred, with five of magnitude 7.0 or greater through

November 1. This also generated a Pacific-wide tsunami which travelled as far as

California, Australia, Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines, which left over 2,000 people

dead, 3,000 injured and another 2 million homeless. The tsunami had traveled over

10,000 km with waves as high as 25 meters. With warnings given to major coastal cities

within the vicinity, major death tolls were prevented but structural damage was

extensive. The extreme scale of the shifts on the seafloor that had caused the tsunamis

was such that the waves that had arrived nearly 15 hours later in the Hawaiian

Islands—6,200 miles (10,000 km) away—still crested at 11 meters in some places. The
waves had managed to cause millions of dollars of damage at Hilo Bay on the main

island of Hawaii, where 61 lives were unfortunately lost. Once the tsunami reached the

main Japanese island of Honshu 22 hours after they had been generated, the waves

had become less intense, leading to about 5 and a half meters and laid waste to over

1,600 homes and killed nearly 200 people. Many boats and docks were damaged along

the areas of Long Beach, San Diego and Los Angeles. Crescent City also saw waves of

up to 2 meters but no lives were lost.

Many cities off the southern coast of Chile had sustained significant damage,

with subsidence occurring in the city of Puerto Montt and nearly half of the cities in

Valdivia labeled as uninhabitable. Two days later, after forty years of inactivity, the

Cordon-Caulle volcano in Los Lagos erupted, thought to be linked by the quake. Due to

the lack of communication in Chile at the time, other volcanoes may also have erupted.

The death toll in Chile (5,700) compared to other areas was due to the area’s high

geological activity and building practices.

Among all the stories that were told by the citizens of Chile and their

experiences, my grandpa also had one. He was near the epicenter, about 170 km north

in the town called Temuco where he was raised. My grandpa worked in the farmlands,

raising cattle and planting vegetables. On the day of the event, a cold winter morning

(seasons are switched in Chile), he was near the mountains, when a vicious landslide

occurred. He said it was one of the scariest experiences of his life, and feared he was

going to die. My grandpa was fortunate enough to escape it, but the farmland he worked

in sustained a great amount of damage. It took months to fix, along with other towns
and farms being heavily damaged. My grandpa, being the noble man he is, volunteered

throughout his town and helped others who were in need.

Another massive earthquake in which a lot of my family members were present

was during the 1985 Algarrobo Earthquake. The earthquake erupted on March 3 at

about 8PM, with the epicenter being in Valparaiso (where my grandparents currently

reside, luckily they hadn’t moved there yet) near central Chile, with a magnitude of a

strong 8.0. The earthquake was felt all the way through the northern regions as well as

near the southern regions, but most of its intensity was felt in the center, where the

capital is also located. Valparaiso is about 115 km from Santiago, Chile’s capital, where

a good amount of damage was sustained. Because Chile became a country very prone

to earthquakes, buildings and structures were being heavily developed. Many houses

and buildings were now built with cement, providing much stronger ground. With these

earthquake proof homes, many weren’t destroyed.

The earthquake left 177 people dead, another 2,575 injured and a million

homeless. Many landslides also occurred, especially in the Valparaiso region because

of the many hills and mountains that surround it. Other damaged included broken

pavement in a few highways, broken down bridges, and heavily interrupted services,

leading to heavy damaged that valued more than 1,046 million dollars.

All of my family that had been born at the time were present during the

earthquake. My mom had been at the park in Santiago, she was only 12 at the time and

was playing with all her cousins when the ground started shaking heavily. People at the

park started freaking out and running to anywhere they could find safety. My mom and

her cousins rushed to their house with extreme fear, being the first earthquake they had
experienced. The shaking wouldn’t stop, lasting for more than two minutes. Luckily, all

the homes in the area were built with cement, leading the homes to be earthquake

proof. My dad had a similar experience as well, he lived a few miles away from my

mom. Both my parents said it was quite the experience, having to remain calm in such a

chaotic environment.

The most recent earthquake in Chile, where many lives were lost and heavy

damage was sustained was in 2010. On February 27, at about 3:30 AM, a massive 8.8

earthquake hit the country, with its epicenter being near the central coast of Chile,

again. The shaking lasted for more than three minutes. The earthquake caused much

damage on the land, and generated a tsunami, being responsible for more than 500

deaths. The quake had resulted from the same ruptures that were responsible for the

earthquake in 1960. The town of Constitución was inundated by waves as high as 15

meters, and many ports were damaged by waved measuring nearly 5 meters high.

Though damage was limited due to the cement structures, nearly 400,00 homes

were damaged. The southern town Concepcion was severely damaged, including a tall

apartment building split in two. In the same town, the limited availability of food and

gasoline led to widespread looting, a phenomenon that later expanded to nonessential

items such as televisions and the consequent arrest of several dozen people. Many

victims that were affected in the coastal areas were given more than a million dollars.

Thankfully, reconstruction didn’t take very long, but the country faced aftershocks for

months following the earthquake.

My parents and I thankfully were in the United States when it had occurred, but

the rest of my family had to go through it. The ones most affected were my uncle and
his five daughters, who lived at the very top of an apartment building in the capital. One

of my cousins suffered a broken leg and a few of them kept falling, they said that the

building kept shaking back and forth and thought it would eventually collapse.

These three catastrophic events have greatly affected my country, with billions of

dollars spent in reconstruction, and many families left homeless, injured or dead. But

with new innovations to buildings and homes, the damage is less severe. I hope I never

get to encounter this vicious monster when I visit for its potency and damage that it

could cause. I’ve lived through tremors and tsunami warnings, but they are nothing

compared to this monster.

A monster that I think could replace this vicious is one would be the monsters

that come after the earthquake hits. Landslides, floods, fires, and the biggest of all,

tsunamis are all monsters that come after the “big” one, also being responsible for many

deaths that come after the shaking. These threats are even bigger ones for those who

live in coastal areas or those who are near hills and mountains. I pray to God I never

have to encounter any of these monsters.

1960 - The Great Chilean Earthquake https://www.britannica.com/event/Chile-

earthquake-of-1960

1985 - Algarrobo Earthquake 2010 - Chile Earthquake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Algarrobo_earthquake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake
References: Rafferty, John P., and Richard Pallardy. “Chile Earthquake of 2010.”

Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 May 2016,

www.britannica.com/event/Chile-earthquake-of-2010.

Revolvy, LLC. “‘1985%2BAlgarrobo%2Bearthquake’ On Revolvy.com.” Trivia Quizzes,

www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=1985%2BAlgarrobo%2Bearthquake.

“Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and the Richter Scale – Quatr.us Study Guides.” Quatr.us Study

Guides, 21 Apr. 2018, quatr.us/geology/what-causes-earthquakes.htm.

“Predicting Earthquakes in Ancient China – Quatr.us Study Guides.” Quatr.us Study Guides,

19 Apr. 2018, quatr.us/china/predicting-earthquakes-ancient-china.htm.