Before reading this article, please click "Follow" to facilitate your discussion and sharing, which will bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Text | Far mountain bamboo leaves
Edit | Far mountain bamboo leaves
Preface
On December 18 this year, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Jishishan County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, with an epicenter depth of 10 kilometers.
Since the earthquake occurred in the middle of the night, many people were still asleep and unprepared, which was one of the main causes of casualties in this earthquake.
The last time China experienced such a severe earthquake was in 2008, when the magnitude of Wenchuan in Sichuan reached a staggering 7.8 magnitude.
The Wenchuan earthquake has also been called one of the worst natural disasters in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and what is even more shocking is that the earthquake classification is a total of 12 magnitudes, and the strongest earthquake in human history reached 9.5 magnitude.
Don't be too surprised, the 9.5 magnitude earthquake has left 2 million people homeless, triggered a series of natural disasters around the world, and even deviated the Earth's axis of rotation by 8 cm.
So, what is the astonishing power of the strongest earthquake in human history, and what would a real 12-magnitude earthquake look like?
The strongest earthquake in human history
In the early morning of May 21, 1960, Chilean time, people were still asleep and did not wake up, but they could already feel the shaking of the earth.
Since Chile is a country where small earthquakes often occur, people don't pay much attention to it, and even most people seem careless, but no one would think that this is just the "vanguard" of a strong earthquake.
An ordinary small earthquake only knocked down some houses, and just when people were still complaining that the earthquake was not too small to make it impossible for them to sleep properly, a "roar" from the ground was heard on the 22nd.
The sound was like millions of tanks starting at the same time, about to run over the earth, and then without giving people time to react, the earth began to shake wildly, and the continuous ups and downs continued for a long time.
It was as if the earth was about to turn this place upside down, and all the tall buildings on the ground collapsed in an instant, and the tiny human beings disappeared in such violent tremors.
Viewed from above, in the city of Valdivia in central Chile, the Earth has undergone a massive rupture from the inside out, and the rift is clearly visible from the satellite.
The earthquake brought great disaster to Chile, not only the houses, bridges and roads in the local cities were destroyed, but also the original topography of Chile was changed.
Later, after the calculation of relevant experts, the magnitude of this major earthquake reached an astonishing 9.5, which directly refreshed the largest magnitude recorded by mankind, and its energy was no less than the explosion of tens of thousands of nuclear bombs.
In layman's terms, the earthquake in Chile was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and it was a major disaster that has never been seen before in human history.
Judging from the data of that major earthquake, it is also the only one in human history, the major earthquake in Chile lasted for 10 days, causing three earthquakes of magnitude 8 or higher, ten earthquakes of magnitude 7 or more, and aftershocks do not need to be listed one by one.
The earthquake directly led to the re-eruption of 6 recognized extinct volcanoes, and even formed 3 new volcanoes, and what is even more exaggerated is that the earthquake deviated the Earth's axis of rotation by 8 cm, speeding up the Earth's rotation, which translates to a reduction of 1.26 microseconds per day.
Another dramatic phenomenon that can be seen in the power of the earthquake at that time is that after the earthquake in Chile, Chile's coastline drifted a distance of several meters, and the country's land area increased by nearly a thousand football fields.
But don't think that if the earthquake happened in Chile, the disaster would not spread to other regions, because Chile is at the junction of the South American plate and the Nazca plate, and after a ten-minute tremor, the chain reaction caused by the earthquake even affected other countries.
There is a proverb in Chile that roughly means that earthquakes don't kill people, but collapsed houses can be fatal.
But now it seems that this proverb is only applicable to those small earthquakes, for which there is nowhere for small human beings, with or without houses.
In fact, what is really terrifying is not the earthquake itself, but the chain reaction caused by the earthquake, which we call "secondary disasters", the higher the magnitude of the earthquake, the more terrifying the secondary disasters caused.
The ripple effect of advanced earthquakes
For Chile, which often experiences earthquakes, the awareness of earthquake prevention is still very good, but in the face of absolute power, their previous earthquake prevention measures are in vain.
In fact, after the earthquake that lasted for more than ten minutes, many people still survived, but when the people who had just escaped were still in shock, they realized that something was wrong around them.
They were amazed to find that the sea water on the coast was receding, even revealing the seabed that they had never had a chance to see before, and experienced people immediately reacted that this was a precursor to a tsunami, so they immediately ran higher.
Sure enough, after nearly ten minutes of accumulation, a huge curtain of water nearly 30 meters high was formed in an instant, and the waves rushed ashore like a huge monster that had been enraged, enveloping everything they encountered.
In just a moment, the obscured sea crushed everything along the pier, and that was not the end of it, the tide came and went for several hours in a row, and the then Monterey Harbor and everything around it were "ransacked", leaving nothing behind.
After the wrath of the earth, it is the power of the sea, human beings have no room to resist in front of nature, many people do not understand, earthquakes are earthquakes, why do they cause tsunami disasters?
In fact, earthquake-induced tsunamis are a well-understood phenomenon, when the seabed landscape suddenly settles or bulges, the energy generated between the plates will be transferred to the surface of the sea, resulting in a tsunami.
It's like if you tap a basin full of water, and the energy of the tap is transmitted to the water through the basin, eventually forming water ripples.
For the earth, a tsunami is just a small ripple of water, but for humans, this small ripple is a natural disaster that can destroy everything.
Not only Chile, but also many coastal countries were also hit by the tsunami of varying severity in the following days, and the buildings and industries along the coast were severely damaged.
At that time, a tsunami rushed straight into the western Pacific Ocean at a speed of 700 km/h, and quickly hit the Hawaiian Islands, and in less than a day, it hit the Japanese archipelago, but it only dropped from a height of 10 meters to 8 meters, causing huge damage.
The Chilean region itself is not comfortable, because the earthquake caused the ground fissures, and in some places there are even new faults and dislocations, and some people fall into these fissures in the process of the earthquake.
The earthquake not only changed the terrain, but also affected Chile's coastline, directly causing all navigational charts in the affected areas to no longer apply.
It can be said that an earthquake in one place in Chile directly affected the coastal areas of the world with varying degrees of damage, which is the power of a 9.5 magnitude earthquake.
In fact, it is not only tsunamis, but earthquakes can cause many other chain reactions, causing tsunamis close to the coast and not much better inland.
Although major disasters such as tsunamis do not occur inland, flooding is still one of the most important natural disasters, and if an earthquake occurs near a water area, it will create a dammed lake, which not only endangers the lives of local residents, but also makes rescue more difficult.
The second is landslides and mudslides, which are inevitable secondary disasters because earthquakes usually occur at the junction of tectonic plates, and there are mountainous areas in the vicinity.
Landslides will not only block the rescue path, but also bury houses and even people, increasing the difficulty of rescue, and the debris flow has the characteristics of large scale, short formation time, large destructive power, instability, etc., and is also the "harvester" of life.
In winter, the most likely to appear is another secondary disaster, that is, frost disaster, this time the earthquake in Gansu, because of the problem of the season, the most urgent problem to solve turned out to be the problem of heating.
There are many disasters caused by earthquakes, such as fires, plagues, etc., and the chain reactions caused by these earthquakes are enough to be fatal.
So, what is the cause of earthquakes, and what kind of hellish scene would an earthquake look like at the highest level?
Formation and division of earthquakes
In fact, judging from the earthquake phenomenon in Chile and many other regions, the main reason why earthquakes occur frequently in some places and that there is no earthquake in a hundred years in some places is because of the geographical location.
In the case of Chile, for example, the reason for the frequency of earthquakes in the region has a lot to do with its geographical location, and the Pacific Rim Seismic Zone has always been a very active seismic zone.
According to statistics, nearly a quarter of the world's earthquake energy is released near the Chilean region, which is why Chile is called "the last mud of God's creation of the world", alluding to the instability between the tectonic plates in the region.
If we want to understand the real cause of earthquakes, we first need to fully understand the earth we live on, in fact, human beings live only on the surface of the earth's crust, and at the deeper level of the earth, it can really be described as an undercurrent.
To put it simply, the earth is a multi-layered structure formed by the earth's crust, mantle and core, and the layers are not completely fixed between each layer, and there is a structure called "crustal plates" between the crust and the mantle, which as the name suggests, is a piece of crust.
Since the earth's crust and mantle are not fixed, there will be a certain degree of movement of the "crustal plates", which is also commonly known as "plate drift", and the plates will collide and squeeze and deform, and when the energy accumulates to a certain extent, it will be released and cause earthquakes.
The earthquake that struck Chile in 1960 was caused by the subduction of the Nazca plate into the South American plate.
In addition, certain human activities can also induce earthquakes, such as when humans develop minerals and build reservoirs, which will change the force distribution of the earth's crustal plates, thereby increasing the risk of earthquakes.
Therefore, the higher the series, the higher the energy released by the earthquake, the higher the energy released by the earthquake, which was first proposed by the American seismologist Rickett.
A Grade 1 earthquake is the lightest and can hardly be felt by humans, but it can be measured by instruments, while Grade 2 to Grade 3 is different, and people can easily sense it, but it does not cause danger.
When it comes to a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake, people will feel fear, because an earthquake of this magnitude can already make people feel a significant sense of vertigo, and cracks will appear in ordinary old houses.
It was only at magnitude 7 that earthquakes began to be considered catastrophic, and most of the damage caused by earthquakes in history was also at this magnitude.
In the eighth and ninth magnitude earthquakes, most of the houses are already unbearable, and even if you stand on the ground, it is difficult to maintain your balance, and at this time, the ground will begin to crack, and if you are not careful, you will fall.
At present, human beings have not encountered an earthquake of magnitude 10 or above, but it is not difficult for us to imagine how powerful an earthquake of magnitude 10 will be.
An earthquake of magnitude 11 is very likely to directly lead to the subsidence of the ground, and if there is water pouring in at this time, it will cause flooding, and if not, at least it will greatly change the terrain, and maybe the original flat bottom may rise from the ground and a high mountain.
The highest level of the twelfth level is an unimaginable disaster, and the statement of experiencing the vicissitudes of life overnight is not enough to describe it, if an earthquake of that magnitude really occurs, no evidence of human civilization will be left.
And this also shows that in front of nature, human beings are too small.
epilogue
Heaven and earth are ruthless to all things as dogs, in front of nature human beings are always insignificant, human beings are always just children living in the arms of the earth, and this is also an eternal topic between man and nature.
Although the disaster is merciless, there is love in the world, and I hope that the people in the disaster area can get through the difficulties safely, and I also pay tribute to the rescuers who rushed to the front line of the disaster area, as well as all the people who are concerned about the disaster area.