Just felt my first earthquake

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
5,485
338
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I thought a train was coming through. Massive rumbling, dogs crazy, everything flew off the table and when I ran outside you could not see a thing through the dust cloud. It was a 4.6 and think I was at the epicentre.

Magnitude mb 4.6
Region DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Date time 2016-01-02 15:25:41.3 UTC
Location 19.63 N ; 71.31 W
Depth 20 km
Distances 67 km W of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic / pop: 1,200,000 / local time: 11:25:41.3 2016-01-02
17 km N of Sabaneta, Dominican Republic / pop: 16,380 / local time: 11:25:41.3 2016-01-02
6 km NW of Cana Chapet?n, Dominican Republic / pop: 1,758 / local time: 11:25:41.3 2016-01-02

The Sabaneta is actually Santiago Rodriguez aka Sabaneta - not Sabaneta de Yasica

Matilda
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
5,449
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I saw the one last week here in Puerto Plata. I was sitting eating and my Pepsi jumped out of the glass without knocking down the glass, nor did I actually feel anything, just saw it.
Der Fish

That was the viagara kicking in.
 

ju10prd

On Vacation!
Nov 19, 2014
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Accountkiller
The reported earthquake in this thread was relatively weak but the effect to residents especially in the western Cibao near it's center caused widespread panic.

There is a very informative article in Diario Libre today as below link and translation which sheds some light on why earthquakes can be felt more profoundly in areas of the Cibao where the subsoil is less hard and the seismic waves consequently take longer to spread and have more effect.

It is a very good read highlighting the continuing construction of many properties throughout the country especially in the poorer areas and suburbs of large towns without any reference to building codes and the areas of greater risk and a need to categorize areas as well as investigate areas in relation to enhanced risks due to subsoil. Areas in the north of the country are likely to feel the effects of a large quake more than in the south is mentioned. And that was always what I was informed that the nature of the subsoil under the Cibao close the Septentrional Fault which runs along the valley north of Santiago makes the area more dangerous in the event of a large earthquake.

http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...-riesgo-ante-sismo-de-gran-magnitud-CM2349712

And a web translation....but check out the original article for some graphics and a video too


Illegal construction, a large magnitude earthquake risk

Public works technicians detected around ten and twelve daily illegal constructions in the Capital

| 07 JAN 2016, 8:49 AM

SANTO DOMINGO. Since the earthquake in Haiti of magnitude 7.3 occurred in 2010 that causes thousands of deaths in the Dominican Republic have been 5,341 earthquakes of which about 124 reached 4 and 5 degrees, the latest sparked panic in some citizens.

"It was very, but very strong.!" Moved everything here in Dajabon, people, shocked it thought that it had repeated that chaos of Haiti! ", said Jorge B?ez, referring to the first earthquake of this year, magnitude 4.6, that of January two shook several towns in the North and Northwest of the country."

Since last November, the national territory have been several tremors of Earth and replicas that has caused some people to abandon their alarmed homes, what moves to again question how much can have made progress in this area in prevention?

http://www.diariolibre.com/document...EKYX/image_content_6037495_20160107084920.jpg

After the earthquake in Haiti, the Dominican Government issued Regulation 201-11 for analysis and seismic design of structures on the Dominican side. From this Ordinance, any building that was erected in the country should be prepared to resist the effects of earthquakes, for the director of the National Center of seismology, Eugenio Polanco, however, has not happened.

Polanco explains that the problem of Dominican Republic continues to be the small constructions that are made in neighborhoods without supervision by the authorities of the Ministry of public works and communication (MOPC), as well as the lack of follow-up to the large buildings where "many times a thing is designed and built another".

"We hope much in the ethics of which builds the work, and is delicate, because the owner of the work always wants to cheapen it and that may involve reducing the security of it against earthquakes," said Polanco, who believes that it is necessary to find mechanisms that guarantee that the works be made within the legal framework.

According to administrative records of the Department of processing of plans of the indicated MOPC Dominican document in numbers, from 2010 until June 2015, in the country have been issued about 4, 330 permits for the construction of the private sector, which according to the director of buildings from that institution, Milton Torres, are prepared to withstand an earthquake of great magnitude.

"The buildings that we issue license are backed by a technical review that must necessarily comply with building code that we have," stressed Torres.

However, the official admits that the same control with the buildings that rise in sector inhabited by poor people, who usually built without notifying the institution there is.

"Illegal construction proliferate throughout the country and obviously than those that we have not been able to check have no control, and are multiple", he said.

It specified that daily practitioners of that entity report them around ten and twelve illegal constructions in the capital, which represents about 300 per month.

"This is more common in the humble sectors because they are built with somebody, you go cheaper," he said and called on citizens to report buildings that perform in order to control and prevent deaths to seismic events.


Most vulnerable places

In the most vulnerable places in a possible earthquake of great intensity is Santo Domingo, since it was not a planned city. In this area, more susceptible to disaster are sectors reside where humble people because they do not follow building codes, highlights Eugenio Polanco.

"Those places are multi populated, and that is vulnerable because it implies that if a significant event occurs we will have great misfortune. We must also take into account the regulations of construction since when is started to be used in the country", he argued.

Not being a city planned in the areas of large buildings there are difficulties, added, because there is no access roads.

Also the Cibao, especially Santiago, joined several elements to consider him vulnerable area. On an investigation that will be given out later, seismology said that they observed that in many villages in the South of the Cibao there are amplifications of seismic waves, which means that they are more dangerous places for the quality of the soil.

"In the southern part of the country, such as Santo Domingo, rocks are more compact, that to the North, then, the seismic waves are amplified in its soft rock and those are elements that contribute with the threats", he said.

San Francisco de Macor?s, he said, is another city that, from the geological point of view, is a dangerous area. Both Nagua, are places that in the view of Polanco, should be studied in detail.

In addition to the soft soils to produce amplification of seismic waves, in the North of the country is the Northern fault which passes to the North of Santiago and that scientists can generate an important event at any time.

"We have studied the behaviour of waves in the country and one of the findings is that the events that occur in the South, more impact in the North to one of the North in the South, and is the characteristic of the soil," said.

Compact rocks, seismic waves pass easily because they move at high speed, while rocks soft, slow the speed and usually amplifications of waves and there occurs the impact.


Areas with more events

According to the seismic records, the events occur more frequently in the eastern part of the country and the Mona channel. "In the eastern part along incur many events are the most profound, that as a result of which the North American plate has penetrated enough below the plate of the Caribbean.

Expected an earthquake of great magnitude in Dominican Republic?

 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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I felt it in the Centro M?dico Cibao.
It was not major, but it was felt.

HB
 

RonS

Bronze
Oct 18, 2004
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I remember when I first felt my first earthquake. It was a serious reminder that we are not in control. I learned a lot from it.