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April 17th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : A massive earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck Ecuador Saturday night. At least 77 have been reported killed and over 560 injured. The numbers may rise as search, rescue and recovery efforts progress. Several multi-story buildings and bridges collapsed. Part of the country’s communication infrastructure does not work. The government deployed 10 personnel from Ecuador’s armed forces to the provinces of Esmeraldas and Manabí.
There have not been new reports about fatalities since official sources at 8:58 UTC announced that at least 77 were killed in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake Saturday night and severe aftershocks. The number o fatalities is expected to exceed 100. Dr. James Daniell (Cedim, Karlsruhe, Germany) was quoted as saying that he expects the number of fatalities in between 25 and 340 with a median of 120. He also expects damage 250 million damage.
The epicenter of the quake was off the coast but near to land; that is 27.0 km SSE of Muisne, 52.0 km W of Rosa Zarate, 68.0 km SSW of Propicia, 111.0 km NW of Santo Domingo de los Colorados and 170.0 km (105.6 mi) WNW of Quito, Ecuador, reports Earthquake-Report.Com. The rupture occurred at a depth of 20 kilometers. There have been reported over 55 aftershocks.
President Rafael Correa declared a state of national emergency and cut short his visit to the Vatican. Correa addressed the nation via State television, saying that “everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that’s what hurts the most. …The material part is the least important, what is fundamental is guaranteeing human lives”. The quake in Ecuador happened not long after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck southern Japan.
Although the greatest damage occurred in Esmeraldas and Manabí, Ecuador, there are also reports about damage in southern Colombia. So far, rescue teams have struggled to reach remote areas like Padernales. There is a need for helicopters, but operating choppers at high altitudes in mountainous regions is in itself inherently dangerous.
At least 6 multi-story buildings in Guyaquil, which is located hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter, have collapsed. Ecuador’s mobile telecommunication companies are offering free text messaging to the people in the hardest hit area. Experts from Earthquake-Report noted that this should be mandatory to do so everywhere.
M 7.8 earthquake, offshore of the west coast of northern Ecuador, occurred as the result of shallow thrust faulting on or near the plate boundary between the Nazca and Pacific plates notes Earthquake-Report.Com. At the location of the earthquake, the Nazca plate subducts eastward beneath the South America plate at a velocity of 61 mm/yr.
The location and mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with slip on the primary plate boundary interface, or megathrust, between these two major plates. Subduction along the Ecuador Trench to the west of Ecuador, and the Peru-Chile Trench further south, has led to uplift of the Andes mountain range and has produced some of the largest earthquakes in the world, including the largest earthquake on record, the 1960 M 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile. A megathrust earthquake is, according to many estimates “overdue” at the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the west coast of the United States.
F/AK – nsnbc 17.04.2016
Regular news updates can be accessed at Earthquak-Report.Com – The website functions as a public service and depends on donations, so please visit their website and chip in if you can. You can also contact the service if you experience an earthquake and want to send a report about “where you are” and “how it felt”.
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/04/17/over-100-fatalities-expected-after-magnitude-7-8-earthquake-and-aftershocks-struck-ecuador/
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