A rush of nihilism comes by

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer) 02/19/2018 at 02:38 • Filed to: None

3

25

In the last 6 months Mexico City has seen 4 detectable earthquakes above magnitude 6; two of these were above magnitude 8. One killed almost a thousand people.

The latest was today, at magnitude 6, this earthquake shook the southern portion of the country at around 12:55AM. We have a seismic alert system that could, if the earthquake is generated far away enough, detect it with almost 2 minutes in advance. But this alarm doesn’t tell you if you can evacuate or if you’re meant to brace, because an earthquake generated in Oaxaca could take up to 2 minutes to get here, but one generated in Puebla, well, that’s another story

But what is one to do if you live in, say, Santa Fe? in a 20th floor? You can hear the alarm rush and all the patrol cars turn on their sirens intermediately but you’re watching Breaking Bad on your bare boxer shorts. You must subvert your human natural instinct to escape the building.

YES. Leaving a building during a seismic event could be fatal; the emergency staircases have little reason to actually hold up the weight of a human being and the seismic motions at the same time, not even mentioning that a misstep during all this shaking and you fall down the stairs.

So what many people did as they woke up in absolute fear and reminiscent of september’s deadly earthquake was:

1. went on twitter to Seismologo Nacional or SkyAlert to check how scared they should be.
Neither publishes the actual strength of the quake intermediate, only do they publish “small” “Moderate” “intense” in all caps.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Once you see that, you think about what to do next. The recommended procedure is to head to the elevator box. What is an elevator box?

Well, generally speaking, elevators are put in the strongest portions of buildings, and if a building has multiple elevators, the box that is made up by those elevators is the strongest portion of the structure. If said building has no elevators, you might as well head to the mos concentric point of the structure right next to a support pillar. You’re then meant to duck and cover basically.

Which is kind of bullshit; a few days after the September 19th earthquake a smaller replication occurred and I remember being in a very tall building and feeling a rush as I headed to the elevators to duck and cover thinking that my mortality was taken away from me and placed into the hands of concrete and rebar. People were crying because they felt this way too, but they couldn’t hide their nature.. at least not as I could. As the alarm stopped and the building began shaking and cracking I tried to tie myself into a ball until it was over. The local police had helicopters looming around the city, the neighboring municipalities sent their cops over to make sure everything was OK. We all headed back to the windows to witness this, and many who were crying just seconds ago, now had their mortality back in their hands and began making fun of the earthquake on twitter.

It’s just... weird, man, and I never want to listen to that stupid alarm, or to the people crying.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 02:48

0

one way to escape that, move to Australia

no earthquakes near here

last decent one was on 28/12/89 (13 died)

Spanfeller is a twat > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/19/2018 at 02:53

1

I wouldn’t mind moving to Australia.

What I do want to see though, is what will happen after so many earthquakes to places like La Roma and La Condesa that lay in very mushy, wet land that shakes like crazy!

Land in Mexico City isn’t equal, to the south in one decaying (but still quite posh) section of the city called Pedregal, most of the foundation is volcanic rock, meaning that earthquakes there are shorter and less violent. Theres ample space to move there rather than continuing expanding buildings near the old lake.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 02:58

1

That was scary to read :|
Take care good sir!

Tapas > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 03:31

1

There’s only one way out - Build a giantegg carton for humans in your house/apartment that can withstand crushing.

victor > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 03:33

2

Counterpoint : the US is too fucking cheap to pay for even an earthquake warning system because the federal government is going to go into the red really really hard soon, and have also enacted elements in said budget that fuck with West coast state budgets because they are liberal. My parents lived in Asia for the last 20 years and just came back these last few months. They don’t understand why the healthcare system is so screwed up here because they have been recepients of universal health care for so long.

WilliamsSW > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 04:16

0

Man that’s scary. I hate that feeling of helplessness.

Hopefully you’re not on the sinking lake bed part of the city. IIRC that’s where the worst damage occurs?

Spanfeller is a twat > victor 02/19/2018 at 07:21

1

Where do west coast earthquakes generate?

We need to keep in mind that the only reason this EWS works is because Mexico has very unique geography where an earthquake might generate 1000km away, giving the sensors enough time to work.

Spanfeller is a twat > Tapas 02/19/2018 at 08:03

1

Actually they did push for something like that.

But the real answer is building correctly.

Cé hé sin > pip bip - choose Corrour 02/19/2018 at 09:13

0

Snakes though. And spiders. And sharks. And salt water crocs. And drop koalas.

fintail > Cé hé sin 02/19/2018 at 09:59

1

And fires.

Hmm how to get into Oz, being a convict won’t do it anymore. Fake refugee status, marriage, or pay for play residency might do it.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 10:26

1

In Mexico, this may never happen.

Spanfeller is a twat > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/19/2018 at 10:47

1

It depends because architects and engineers for the school that fell... well, they’re being charged on murder charges.

some buildings (most after 85's earthquake) are built to a good standard. It is actually a saying that “there are buildings made after 85s and made before 85s” that refer to the structural integrity of these.

SOME are built to the CA building code standards; specially the new fancy skyscrapers.

The biggest issue is that the buildings that aren’t safely built impact the people that have the least resources, outside Mexico City’s Cuernavaca, and Puebla’s metropolitan area there are almost no building codes, meaning that the people that built their own homes in these rural communities could be killed or left homeless by an earthquake. another big issue is that some buildings commissioned by the government inside Mexico City did not respect the building codes: again, this was a housing project, so it’s a thing of people that can afford good buildings and people who cannot.

It’s a sad realization that our country is shitty that way. Summarized best by this angry columnist.

However, I strongly doubt we will see another 85-like cataclysmic event in which the national hospital was destroyed and with it thousands of lives were lost. It will be a cold day in hell before Torre Mayor goes down.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 10:58

0

It would be useless in most of the west coast of the US. Where I live would benefit, but it would probably not be functional when it finally happened (ours occur pretty rarely, like hundreds of years between them). In SoCal we all sat on our faults and they might give us a second or two of warning. A big one happened when I was a kid with an epicenter literally a block and a half from my house in Los Angeles. Most of the cities in CA are in a similar situation, sitting directly on major faults.

Spanfeller is a twat > WilliamsSW 02/19/2018 at 10:58

1

It is the worst shooked part. However, damage occurs to the badly made buildings.

Spanfeller is a twat > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/19/2018 at 11:04

0

It seems like the deadliest part of CA quakes.

But what a terrible streak we have, four large earthquakes in less than six months.

WilliamsSW > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 11:15

0

Mexico City is such a wonderful city - - I have visited many times. But it amazes me that one of the world’s largest cities ended up on a dry lake bed at 7,200 feet above sea level, where the valley traps the pollution and it’s subject to earthquakes, Popo, etc.

I love visiting the city, but after 4-5 days, the thin air starts to get to me.

Spanfeller is a twat > WilliamsSW 02/19/2018 at 11:24

1

well, it originally had many benefits.

The lake didn’t dry up, spanish people destroyed the lake, that served as a great way to farm all the food consumed in the capital.

But it remains true that Mexico City wasn’t meant to be big, not bigger than 3 million people and certainly not pushing 9 million!

Also those two huge mountains are great at keeping tornadoes away.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 11:26

1

I was basing this comment on my experience with Mexico outside Mexico City. Aside from some skyscrapers in the core, basically everything I’ve seen was built to very dodgy standards, if built to any standards at all. Even tall skyscraper style buildings in most of the country seem exceptionally dodgy. But the thing is that most of the country is seemingly never-ending colonias and barrios hand-built out of concrete and bricks with little-to-no reinforcement. The construction is basically art, very pretty when new, but it often doesn’t stand the test of time. You know, the kind of stuff that kills people in earthquakes. Average people live and work in building like this, as you have pointed out.

The US isn’t much better, but we do have loosely-followed building codes in most places that make such extreme loss of life less likely when natural disasters happen.

Spanfeller is a twat > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/19/2018 at 11:34

0

Its just so painfully stupid that this happens, specially because this could be a regulatory issue only.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 11:44

0

You’ve definitely seen a lot of them recently.

I remember when one happened on Easter in 2010 centered somewhere around Mexicali . It was a 7.2 and due to geology, it was even a pretty serious quake where I lived in San Diego. I would have guessed a 5+ based on past experiences, although that was the only large quake I have experienced that many floors above ground.

The thing is that this one was actually far enough away that they could have given us nearly a minute of warning... Not common in CA, but one of those odd cases when they could have. Mind you, damage was minimal-to-nonexistent due to building codes.

WilliamsSW > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 12:07

0

Ah yes - I remember seeing a diorama of the old city (Tenochtitlan) here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Anthropology_(Mexico)

I think most of the world’s largest cities are starting to overwhelm their location...

Spanfeller is a twat > WilliamsSW 02/19/2018 at 15:02

1

Definitely.

México city should stop developing and instead focus on being sustainable.

But this won’t happen, ever.

WilliamsSW > Spanfeller is a twat 02/19/2018 at 17:23

1

The US is even worse for that - at least the government has done some things to try to reduce manufacturing and auto usage in Valle de Mexico. Not the complete solution, but it should help a bit at least.

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > Spanfeller is a twat 02/20/2018 at 14:23

1

I remember seeing pictures of my grandpa designing and building is own house right next to a barranca but he went to great lengths to make a solid foundation and after the last earthquake that hit Morelos the neighbors house came down while his only suffered a small crack in a wall

Spanfeller is a twat > Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No 02/20/2018 at 14:27

0

He’s probably one of few.

One of my university’s biggest project is to design a building guideline for rural communities; hardest part is the picture guide for those that do not know how to read (specially in the Sierras to the south)
Sedesol is also getting their hands into it, giving architects grants for smartly designed homes for extreme climates, deserts in high temperatures and sierras to the north in freezing temps