I remember when I was 8 years old and going to my small public library and finding all the books available on Tornadoes and Hurricanes available in the "Junior" section for my third grade science project. This was when computer library systems were still new to me, and I remember thinking that there simply wasn't enough information, and that I needed more. From the "Juniors" section, it was a quick upgrade to the adults section to gather more information. I ripped the books off the shelves and sat on the floor reading (with the help of my parents) about barometric pressure changes, cloud formations, and learning about the scales used in order to measure the strength fascinated me to no end. I was engulfed by the notion that something so much bigger than me or anyone around me existed. The very idea that something as calm as a blue sky with a light breeze could become as violent as a 1/2 mile wide vortex in a matter of minutes was something I needed to find a way to comprehend.
Side bar: my third grade teacher, Mrs.Poppy, thought my spiral representation of the changes in pressure resulting in a tornado was more than deserving of a A+. I feel like projects completed before Wikipedia and the internet are truly deserving of a increase in letter grade since the research was truly labour intensive.
When I was done reading all the available books on meteorology the library had, I remember asking my parents what other kinds of bad things could happen naturally on earth. From this, my parents suggested I stopped looking at the skies and "dug a little deeper". The cleverness of that statement only becomes apparent to me as I sit here and write it down for you, but it was probably marks the beginning of a long and fickle love affair with the world of earthquakes. I can remember reading stories of persons who would relive the memories of the ground opening up and then "swallowing" cars, followed by the ground snapping back shut with the car nowhere to be seen. I also remember looking at pictures from the 9.2 Anchorage earthquake in 1964 in those book. One picture in particular is still ingrained in my memory, it may not have been one of the most famous pictures from that event, but it was remarkable to me. There's a single blue car in the forefront which looks like it dove off the cliff above, but when you focus on the backdrop you notice the cliff is actually the entire left side of the block which has sunk about 15-20 ft. With the wonders of Google, I was able to track down this picture, and have included it below. But the sheer power that must be behind an earthquake is almost indescribable. For those of you unaware of what causes an earthquake, in layman's terms its simply the friction resulting from the sliding or rubbing of tectonic plates (I apologize if there are any seismologists reading this since this may be an oversimplification, but I find that overly simple, is simple enough for non-scholars like myself).
My first first-hand recollection of an earthquake was from my parents in my early-early 20s when my interest in natural disasters had been rekindled. Having grown up in Peru until they moved to Canada some 20-odd years ago, they had lived through their fair share of frightening earthquakes. This would mark my initial encounter with what I now identify as indigenous knowledge sharing. They told me that in Peru when they were growing up there were major earthquakes ever 4 years, or so. To me, this was truly frightening, knowing that I would visit Peru from time to time, statistically speaking my chances of encountering one was pretty high. However, they reassured me that this was not as true as it had been through the 1960s and 1970s. They often referred to three major events in Peruvian history, the 1970 Ancash Earthquake and the 1974 Lima earthquake, and the 2007 Ica earthquake. They could only guesstimate what the ritcher scale reading was in the former two, but they guessed it must have been at least 7.6-7.8. Now, I don't know about anyone reading this, but when the earth begins to move, I would never be able to guage the degree to which it is vibrating- I have two settings: calm and earthquake.
It wasn't until my internship right now in Lima, that I would have the time and access to lots of native Limenos that my true understanding of what its like to live in a city that has seen so much...movement, per-say. I will break down the things I heard by lessons told to me.
1. When the ground sways you have 20 seconds to run. My grandmother frequently recalls an earthquake here in Lima when she was still the principal of an all-girls school. It happened at 9am on a holiday, she and the other teachers were having a meeting when the ground began to shake. She recalls standing up and running for the doors like you usually would in those circumstances. But as the movement grew in violence she not only headed out the front door, but ran past the school yard and into the streets to avoid the bricks that she still, to this day, describes as popping out of the wall like popping corn kernels. When she reached the streets and turned around to look at her school, she was just in time to see in crumble into a pile of indistinguishable rubble. At this point in the conversation, she always clasps her hands holds them to her mouth and thanks God that there were no children in the building that day, and that no one was hurt. This is followed by a warning that, 'if you can get out in less than 20 seconds, you run until you are outside and away from a building. And if you can't get out of a building than find the structural beams and something to hold over your head just in case of flying debris.'
Similarly to my grandmother, my father recalls being in school during an earthquake where the teacher refused to let anyone leave the building when the quake began. He and a classmate decided to make a run for it and made it out of the building when the windows imploded on the classroom in which they had been 10 seconds before.
2. If you are near the ocean, at sea level and you feel a strong earthquake, run for the hills. Since Lima is a city that runs along the good part of the pacific coast, it is common knowledge here that if you happen to be on the beach and an earthquake hits, you have a reasonable amount of time to seek higher ground. In this particular instance, I am not sure who told me this story, but I remember it perfectly. I was sitting on a beach when I was 9 just south of Lima when a family friend or possible distant relative, since you are somehow related to everyone here in someway, began to discuss the retreat of the ocean after a strong earthquake. She, or someone she knew (my Spanish was not the best at the time) had been there to witness the ocean retreat back to the horizon leaving only a frightening visual for all those who saw it, only to come back a short while later in full force.
Similarly, during the 1970 Ancash earthquake, an entire town located in the valley of Huascaran disappeared. In this case they were not near the ocean, but the earthquake was so strong that an entire northern face of the mountain collapsed with rock and ice and buried the town and killed some 70, 000 people. The only survivors from this town were the children who had attended the circus at the stadium which was located on higher grounds. This particular Earthquake was May 31, 1970 which is now commemorated as National Earthquake Preparedness day here, and the area where the town once lay is a national cemetry where any form of reconstruction is prohibited.
3. The Month of October is the unofficial earthquake month. On October 2nd of this year I was on a bus into the center of Lima and I was overhearing two elderly women talk about the beautiful breeze we were having. And one women commented to the other, "This is earthquake breeze" while the other one commented back "Its about the right time of year". With this, I turned around and politely asked them what they meant by "right time of year" and they began to tell me about what October meant to Peruvians. Apparently, here there is native belief that October is the unofficial month of Earthquakes since some of the strongest earthquakes are felt in October. However, this quickly became a debate between the two about May and October being pretty close in numbers, and finally an agreement that in truth May and October are the months to be cautious in. As for the breeze, this can be explained by the next lesson.
4. Earthquakes change the weather. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Is she seriously expecting us to buy this one?! The two aren't connected." Under normal circumstances, a logical person would stand to reason that no, changes in the ground don't affect changes in the atmosphere, and if I hadn't noticed this for myself I too would be filing that one under 'things I am too logical to swallow'. But alas, this is a lesson I will endorse. I have not been in any major earthquakes (thankfully), but I have been in a few tremors.
**Side bar: In Spanish, there is a distinction between Terremoto, an earthquake, (~7.0 on the Ritcher scale), and Temblor, a tremor, (less than ~7.0 on the Ritcher Scale). In English, when the earth moves, its automatically considered an earthquake, but not here.**
Back to the story, in the times I have been in a tremor the following day you notice a change in the climate. Last April there was a tremor at about 2am and it was fairly significant, I remember being awakened to a swaying ceiling fan and the housekeeper screaming "Temblor! Temblor!". Later that morning I awoke to find that the perpetual sunny, hot days had now clouded completely over into a grim overcast sky. At this point I should point out that Lima has two seasons, perpetual sunshine and hot weather in the summer, and endless overcast grey cold days in the winter. My grandparents were the ones to point out that this was normal with strong seismic movements, and that that tremor had marked the end of summer for them that year.
5. Hallow silence in this city is rarely a good thing. The final lesson, and frankly the one I am most vigilant of is silence in the city. Before an earthquake begins it is common knowledge here that a deafening silence is heard between when all the animals go crazy, and when the roar from the earth begins. And for those however many milliseconds, you can't hear anything.
If this were in the middle of Montana, or the Prairies, I would agree that silence is normal, but in a city that had traffic at any hour of the day and is in a constant state of construction and car alarms, complete silence is enough to wake you up in the morning. And on more than one occasion, I have woken up concerned when I heard nothing. However, both times this has happened it has been on a holiday morning where no one bothers coming out until much later in the day.
I should note that since I have been in Lima, 2 tremors have occurred, the first I was in the car and felt nothing. The second we were on the 6th floor in the MEDA office, and the building swayed. It was a very odd sensation, imagine sitting on the edge of the shore being hit by waves. The initial motion is strong and it pushed you one way, while the retreat of the water pushed you back the opposite way. It was strangely soothing but frightening while you held your breath waiting for it to worsen.
After all, everyone in the ring of fire is waiting for "the big one", and everyone around here says we're due. Let's hope that's a piece of indigenous knowledge that I won't be verifying for readers!
1970-Ancash earthquake Rubble
1964 Anchorage, Alaska Earthquake
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