How Telescopes Deal With Earthquakes In Chile 82
Reader edgeofphysics provides a technical sidelight on the earthquake in Chile this morning — some details on how the European Southern Observatory protects the mirrors of the Very Large Telescope when an earthquake strikes. "Given that Chile is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, how do astronomers protect their giant telescopes that have been built or are being built in the Chilean Andes? This blog post discusses how Chile's most advanced facility protects its priceless 8.2-meter primary mirrors in the event of an earthquake."
Re:VLEC - Very large egg cartons (Score:5, Informative)
There now no one needs to RTFA.
Re:Better than (Score:4, Informative)
That same area experienced an ungodly 9.5 earthquake (worst ever recorded) in 1960 so they have both experience and incentive in earthquake safety.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:VLEC - Very large egg cartons (Score:4, Informative)
The further you get from either of these extreme positions, the worse an earthquake is likely to be. If earthquakes are infrequent, it is less likely that building codes will take them into account (or, particularly in places with governance issues) that people will bother with those parts of the building code. If danger isn't seen as immediate, people are less likely to respond to it. If people are poor, but have some access to modern construction techniques, they are likely to get the worst of both worlds. Cheap concrete construction, often done by amateurs, is about the worst possible thing that you could be doing in an earthquake zone; but it is absolutely ubiquitous in zones of more or less modernized poverty. Being modern enough to have a dense population that will start to die like flies when water/sewer/food distribution systems break down is also a bad move; but quite common.
Energy is energy, and powerful earthquakes will always be somewhat risky and(in places with advanced infrastructure) rather costly to clean up; but mass death is almost always a symptom of either tsunami or terrible construction practices.
Re:Better than (Score:2, Informative)
The news being broadcast in the USA show pictures of destruction of a few places, the tsunamis are the big concern as the Chileans watch the news of deaths in Asia... I walked to the office today in Vina and did not see any issues with buildings other than some broken windows... A crack in the cooling system on the Data Center is the biggest damage I have experienced...