Scores killed in Peru earthquake

[stubacca68]

A powerful 7.9 earthquake has hit the coast of Peru, killing at least 337 people and injuring hundreds, Peru's civil defence institute has said.
All but one of the deaths were in the coastal province of Ica, about 265km (165 miles) south of the capital, Lima.

In Lima, buildings shook violently during the prolonged tremors, prompting residents to take to the streets.

President Alan Garcia said he was sending three cabinet ministers to the worst affected area.

The earthquake struck at 1841 (2341 GMT) and lasted for several minutes.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was beneath the Pacific Ocean, about 145km (90 miles) south-east of Lima. Four strong aftershocks ranging from 5.4 to 5.9 followed, the organisation said.

Full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6948888.stm

this just highlights to me how powerful and unstoppable nature actualy is!
It scares me to think that this not even huge lump of rock we live on has all this power that we know very little about and how and when it will unleash it.

[Setarime]

its very scary, thank god we dont get earthquakes like that in the uk, but the way things are changin climate etc it makes you wonder will there come a day when we suffer things like devastating quakes etc

[stubacca68]

no HB, science head on here, quakes are caused by the release of energy from the plates of the earths crust,

Most naturally occurring earthquakes are related to the tectonic nature of the Earth. Such earthquakes are called tectonic earthquakes. The Earth's lithosphere is a patchwork of plates in slow but constant motion caused by the release to space of the heat in the Earth's mantle and core. The heat causes the rock in the Earth to become flow on geological timescales, so that the plates move, slowly but surely. Plate boundaries lock as the plates move past each other, creating frictional stress. When the frictional stress exceeds a critical value, called local strength, a sudden failure occurs. The boundary of tectonic plates along which failure occurs is called the fault plane. When the failure at the fault plane results in a violent displacement of the Earth's crust, the elastic strain energy is released and seismic waves are radiated, thus causing an earthquake. This process of strain, stress, and failure is referred to as the Elastic-rebound theory. It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an earthquake's total energy is radiated as seismic energy. Most of the earthquake's energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth and is converted into heat, or is released to friction. Therefore, earthquakes lower the Earth's available potential energy and raise its temperature, though these changes are negligible.

Quote is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes

Wikipedia is a website i use all the time! check out the link and read all about it

[TGLucario]

its only natural, but i hope there wont be any more died people found