The plan from here

Right now I'm about to go to Ihop, it's a pancake and pastry restaurant so I'm preparing myself for a heart attack.  I thought that before I had my myocardial infarction it would be best to update the blog to tell you all whats going to happen here for the last remaining 3 weeks of my stay in Menlo Park.

I've basically been asked to create a field report for my Chile trip, this will explain the background of the earthquake; purpose of my trip, and what happened during my trip so that in the future when there will be more earthquakes scientists can easily look back and refer to the paper for information on past earthquake patterns.

I've also been asked by my supervisor to write a short article on my experiences in Bolivia and Chile for the Royal Geological magazine so I've got to get on with that too soon.

I've got a while to go untill I leave, but I think a trip to Yosemite is still on the table.  When I do leave however I will be travelling up the west coast and into Canada to see Vancouver and to visit family in Calgary before stopping over in New York for 1 week, after which I will catch a flight back to London.

Thats just a rough outline.

I'll keep the blog updated every now and again by uploading pictures and new info etc

Going home (San Francisco)

Im currently sat in the hostel cafe in La Paz and am pulling an all nighter before getting a taxi to the airport at 2:00am.

The flights from Antofagasta to La Paz were okay, bit boring.  I'm coping very well with the altitude here in La Paz and have just been out for something to eat with a friend.

I'll update the blog when I get to Miami.

Adios

Final day in iquique

Today I covered the northern half of Alto Hospicio.  This area has overall been hit quite badly, I'd say as badly as the worse parts of Iquique in some places.  It seems to be the same types of building, brick or unreinforced conrete that are damaged the worst.

Life seems back to normal here for the majority of people, however some of the population have to live in tents or temporary accommodation elsewhere because their homes have been damaged so badly.

This is the same situation in Iquique, campsites are positioned throughout the city and are guarded by police and sometimes military personel.

I think I've gathered a lot of good photographic evidence and gained some valuable fieldwork experience through my time in Iquique.  Tomorrow I head for Antofagasta and will spend my time there looking for earthquake damage along the beach front and some residential districts before flying to La Paz on the 16th and then onto Miami and San Francisco on the 17th.

The total area I've covered in Iquique and Alto Hospicio

Iquique map

I would have been able to cover a lot more of Iquique by bike, but think I've done okay on foot so far.

Alto hospicio tomorrow morning and then the rest of Iquique, going to be a loooooong day tomorrow.

Earthquake damage - central Iquique

This is the housing estate I mentioned in the last entry.  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it and the security guard wrote it in my note book in very scribbly hand writing haha.

The weakest parts of the walls have been exposed by the shearing effects of the seismic waves.

The residents live in their tents in the car park.

One half of the estate was less severely damaged compared to the other half, which Carlos lived in.

The emergency food bags

The water bottles donated by the regional government

Brick buildings are very vulnerable to earthquake activity.

Bad angle, apologies

Iquique day 2

After a ridiculously annoying morning of forgetting things and attempting to rent a bike, I went around the south and centre of Iquique searching for crazily damaged buildings from 10-16:30ish (would have stayed out till 6/7 but my bloody cameras ran out of battery and so did my gps!  Absolute nightmare.  First world problems.

I walked around the beach front and observed the damage in the apartment buildings and relatively modern looking buildings as that is my main focus.  I then made my way to central Iquique where after taking a lot of photos of damaged buildings a really nice Chilean guy offered to show me a badly hit area in a central residential area.  I got in the car with him; his wife, his daughter, and his nephew haha.  Such a weird situation but it just shows how friendly and trusting Chileans are, when I said "Britanico" they went mental, haha Brits must be popular, there are a lot of British-Hispanic schools around here after all and they must follow English football because when I said I'm from near Manchester I was quizzed on Alex Ferguson and whether I support Manchester city or Manchester United, they seemed disapointed when I told them I prefer Rugby.

This next part of my day was quite sad and depressing.  The Chilean family dropped me off 1km down the main road at a housing estate that had been badly hit by the 1st of April earthquake and aftershocks.  It had been hit so badly that the people living there have had to camp in their carpark and have been told by the police and local government that they can't live in their homes anymore untill theyre fixed or completely reconstructed.

I was welcomed by Carlos a middle ages Chilean resident of the estate who lives there with his family. He generously volunteered to show me around, he spoke English quite well so I got a lot of information about the severity of the effects of the earthquake, especially for this small but tight-nit community.

Carlos told me "Sometimes I just want to cry all day," - "We have government help, but it isn't enough, we need much more help,". The regional government has provided them with over a hundred water bottles, and the national government has provided over 100 emergency food/supply bags.  Frankly I was quite shocked that in a country as developed as Chile (for South America) that the government hadn't acted faster and helped more.  Carlos has a second home, however he emphasised that it is very small compared to his damaged flat, others are even less fortunate and have to camp in the car park in dangerous conditions right next to potentially collapsable buildings and without running water.

Carlos asked me if I was a journalist and I said "well sort of," this data and pictures will be published on the USGS website and will go towards a published data report as well as an article for a magazine.  Carlos wasn't fussed about whether I was a journalist or not as long as I spread their story the best I could.

After leaving the estate I carried on wandering around central Iquique before my power ran out on both my cameras and GPS!  I then got a taxi back to the hostel, and here I am.

It has been a very strange day today.  The entire experience has made me realise how fortunate I am to live in such a stable and peaceful country with practically no natural hazards, besides flooding and tornados (in extreme cases) in isolated areas.  If anything this experience hasn't put me down or made me scared, it has made me more eager to study Natural Hazards and to specialise in Natural hazard prediction, and management, so that I can be able to help people like Carlos and get them out of the horrible situations that they find themselves in after a major natural disaster has struck.

Iquique first day photos

Not a huge amount of area covered but then again Iquique is a big city and I was without a bike.

Result of lateral spreading

Santiago University building

Overturned yacht in Iquique harbour 

Iquique - first day

I caught the bus from Arica at 6:30am today and slept all the way to Iquique.  Good job too because the bus was 5 hours long.  I was shocked to learn that the bus couldn't go to Iquique ecause of the severely damaged road from Alto Hospicio to Iquique.  The bus dropped us off at Alto Hospicio, from there I got a taxi to the hostel and checked in.

The hostel is very nice, very south american in design haha with all of the eccentric colours and art work.  It's right next to the beach which is good for the surfers, but unfortunate in case of a tsunami haha.  After lunch I set out on my random wanderings, focusing on the northwest of Iquique and the harbour area.  I decided not to rent a bike today so progress was a lot slower.

I did manage to take a lot of pictures in my 5 hours of aimless wandering and noticed that the damage in Iquique is indeed a lot worse than in Arica.  There are more cracked roads and pavements as well as more damaged buildings.  There are a lot more damaged modern buildings, for example the university of Chile building in the north west of the city has lots of cracks and fissures on its exterior walls.  I would have gone inside but the staff wouldnt allow me to take photographs (this was the case in a lot of the buildings I visited)

In Arica however a lot of the modern buildings remained fairly normal and undamaged showing that the overall affect of the April 1st earthquake was more severe in the Iquique area.  There isn't that much evidence of tsunami activity/tsunami tide despite the abundance of washed up rubbish on the beaches and rocks near the harbour, and an overturned yacht.

I'm going to attach a couple of photos to the next post.  Tomorrow I will be renting a bike and will try and cover as much as Iquique as I possibly can.  Wish me luck!

First and last day in Arica - photos

My route today

Cracks on the bridge caused by the earthquake

Elevator shafts were severely damaged in the local government building.  Theyre all out of use temporarily.

Liquefaction

Fresh landslide

Severly cracked billboard foundations.  Very dangerous.

Cracked concrete pavement 

Not a bad place to do fieldwork

First and last day in Arica

Today started sluggishly, I was completely knackered after the flights and ten hour bus so I got up at around 9ish, had breakfast and then got off to work!  Oh and I felt my first aftershock this morning, I thought my chair was just wobbly haha!

I borrowed a bike from the hostel and rode around the busy streets of Arica, taking pictures, and writing observations of damage to the infrastructure, and buildings of Arica caused by the recent earthquake.  It was swelteringly hot at times, especially around midday and the sun was shining brightly from 10-sunset, so it was a very ideal day for fieldwork.

I weaved in and out of the crowded streets of central Arica and went into some buildings to record evidence of earthquake damage.  I have to say I havent seen as much damage as I had anticipated, however in some buildings such as the local government buildings in central Iquique (directly across from the harbour) there was a lot of visible damage, for examp,e cracks in the ceiling, stairs and floors.

I tried to enter the harbour but turns out you have to work there to get in.  The same situation applied to the local armed services building, but I only found that out after I was booted out by a Chilean soldier, very fun.

The rest of the day was spend cycling around the main neighbourhoods of Iquique.  I'd say the average MMI for the city was 3-4.  Most of the damage was focused in old buildings and poorly constructed buildings in the less affluent districts in the north of the city.

I'm going to be off to Iquique tomorrow which has been much more severely hit by the earthquake and following aftershocks than Arica.  Apparently the situation there is a lot worse, e.g. Disruptions to power and water supplies as well as disruptions to public transport.  Do not fear though!  As I have taken extra cautions.  I've booked my bus a day early, stocked up on food and water bottles.  I will arrive in Iquique at 11:00am and will take a taxi to the hostel before I start my half day of work.

I'm just about to go to bed after having a few beers and playing uno with some graduates from England, a German doctor and a German anthropologist.

Adios Amigos 

La Paz - Arica pictures

View of the outter rim of La Paz from the city centre (bus terminal)

That's sort of what I saw when I mentioned the light boucing off the buildings.  However there was some dirt on the window so it's not the best picture.

Deserts and arid land for miles and miles

Lots and lots of snow capped mountains, and llamas too!

Its crazy how remote some people choose to live.  This house was in the middle of the desert, madness haha.

The roads here aren't very safe, I often found myself closing the curtains so that I couldnt see the crumbling cliff sides inches away from the bus wheels.

More desert

Beautiful northern Chile

La Paz - Arica

I am now relaxing in the nice beach front hostel in Arica enjoying the calm quiet and warm sea breeze, this morning however was a completely different story.  I got on the plane to La Paz full of anxiety and fear that I'd get completely lost and wouldn't be able to find anyone that spoke English, but when I got off at La Paz at 05:35am a Bolivian chef from New York who was on the same flight as me offered to take me to the bus terminal and order the ticket for me.  It's so amazing when you meet truly selfless and nice people like that when youre travelling.

Well anyway me and Luiz shared a taxi with his family and he helped me book a ticket to Arica which cost $10 (£6) haha that's a pretty awesome deal for so great a distance!

I lounged about in the bus terminal till the call for my bus came, I then boarded and began my long 10 hour journey to Arica.  Though bus journeys often get a bad rep by a lot of travellers I have to say that this bus journey was particularly nice, even though I don't speak a word of Spanish and it lasted 19 hours!

As I was driven through La Paz I was presented with amazing and sometimes weird and unpleasant sights such as the ferociously brave jay walking of children in the middle of main roads, guys pissing on bus shelters 10 feet away from policemen, the huge population of stray dogs prowling the streets and a number of other crazy things.  The highlight was seeing the whole of La Paz from the valley rim and seeing all of the buildings glimmering in the sunlight as the clouds began to creep in from the mountains.  I actually shouted "wow" at that view, not something that I regularly do, so now you know how spectacular it was haha.  Unfortunately I couldnt get any pictures because the sun was too bright and the camera couldnt take it.  I have to admit I was having difficulties breathing with the high altitude, but a couple cups or coca tea sorted me out.

We then drove on and on through the Andes and deserts for 9 hours.  I got some great pictures however the bloody camera has included the time and date in the bottom right hand corner of every photo in big red letters and I don't know how to get rid of it!  But still they look good.

Arica is quite nice, the hostel is filled with nice people from all over e.g.; Brazil, France, Denmark etc.  Had my first legal drink since I left New Zealand so that was rather satisfying.  

Tomorrow I'm going to be observing the earthquake damage from the M8.2 April 1st earthquake that struck the Chilean coast.  Im expecting the damage in Arica to not be as major as in Iquique for example, as the epicentre was 30 miles southwest of Iquique.  But still, I will be hunting for some damaged buildings tomorrow and will hopefully (sounds horrible to wish someones house damaged) get some good pictures for the report.  Wish me luck!

Miami

Just letting you know I'm in Miami airport and have 4 hours till I leave for La Paz.  The flight's 6 hours long so not too bad, when I get there I'll be catching the next bus to Arica (Chile), when I arrive I'll do a blog post. Just to show you all that I've arrived in one piece and that I haven't been kidnapped by a drug baron or something.

¡Adiós!  

Map of predicted journey

Very crudely drawn but this is the journey plan.

The dotted line symbolises the flight back to La Paz from Antofagasta.

Chile 2014. What's going on

So basically on tuesday I was asked by my supervisor if I wanted to go to Chile to do some work in the field for the USGS.  I of course accepted the offer and will now be flying to La Paz (Bolivia) on the 9th of April.  

Once I have arrived in La Paz I will be catching a bus which will take me over the Andes and into Chile to the city of Arica.  Arica is one of the many cities along the coast that I will be visiting and investigating.  

I'm basically being sent to do a field survery, where I will be recording the Mercalli measurement for different areas of the coast, the rate of liquefaction, soil failure, and lateral spreading.

I've also been asked to take as many pictures as possible of the destruction caused by the earthquake and its aftershocks, as well as the damage from the tsunami (even though its effects we not as bad as predicted).

My experiences from this trip will be used in an article that I will be writing for Earth Magazine.  I will be exploring the effects of the earthquake on Chilean society more than infrastructure and buildings.

I will be travelling by bus from Arica-Iquique-Alto Hospicio-Antofagasta.  All of these cities are in the north of Chile.  If youre wondering why I'm flying into La Paz rather than to Santiago it is because the bus ride from Santiago to Iquique would have taken 24 hours!  So overall worked out easier and cheaper to fly into Bolivia.  

Once I reach Antofagasta I'm going to catch a flight to La Paz where I will spend a day chewing coca leaves in the highest capital on the planet before catching my flight home to San Francisco.

I don't speak any Spanish whatsoever.  The only language I speak is German, which I don't really think will come in useful in Chile, so fingers crossed I will have mastered the Spanish language by next Wednesday!  Wish me luck!  And look out for a pasty English guy surfing on some tsunami waves on the news.

Chile trip!!!!

Yeah turns out I'm probably not going to the mud slide in Oso unfortunately.

However I have been presented with an opportunity to travel to Santiago Chile to observe the earthquake and tsunami damage there!

I'll be flying from San Francisco next wednesday and willbe spending 8 days in Chile before coming back to California.  The main objective of this trip will be to observe damage inflicted on coastal communities by tsunamis and earthquakes and to create a field report of the earthquake effects.

The earthquake happened yesterday and was M 8.2, so yes pretty serious.

I'll keep you updated with any developments.

Oso Mudslide trip

I've been informed by my supervisor that there's an opportunity for me to visit the site of the Oso landslide in Northern Washington state, to observe the damage of the mud slide there.

24 people have lost their lives and many more are still missing.

I will be flying to Seattle from San Jose later in April and will be making my way to the mud slide site in Oso.  I'll upload some facts, figures, and pictures about what I see and will keep you updated about my trip plans.

This weekend however, the Yosemite trip is back on!  Though the weather in Menlo Park at the moment is a bit poor at the moment it is supposedly going to be sunny and warm in Yosemite at the weekend!  Good news for us!

Though I'm moaning about the rain it is actually being welcomed by most of the Californians here as they have been experiencing a drought lately.  They're all dancing in the streets and praising the rain god at this very moment.  Joking.  But, yes they are all very happy haha.

I havent taken these images.  They were taken by CNN reporters and belong to CNN.