People say that El Salvador is in the valley of the
hammocks. If you have ever been in a hammock you know that it swings back and
forth. The location of El Salvador is called the valley of the hammocks because
earthquakes cause it to move back and forth a lot. Earthquakes happen every day
in El Salvador, but most of them are very small that people cannot even feel.
However, there are also earthquakes that people can feel about once a month and
a big earthquake that happens once or twice a year.
Living in Chicagoland, I had never felt an earthquake before
coming to El Salvador. I know that we practice earthquake drills at school, but
it is hard to imagine what an earthquake is actually like. The first time I
felt an earthquake was a few years ago when I was visiting El Salvador. I was
at my friend’s house using the computer when I realized my computer chair was
moving. Then, I realized it wasn’t just my chair, but the whole house! I think
that earthquake lasted 45 seconds, and it took me 30 seconds to realize what
was happening. My friend was washing dishes when the earthquake happened and
she told me she thought, “why is the water in that pot moving?” when she
realized that there was an earthquake.
Most earthquakes only last 10-30 seconds. Depending on how
big they are, you can feel a lot of shaking or almost no shaking. Sometimes
things fall off of walls or rocks fall off of mountains. Really big earthquakes
can cause volcanos to erupt and tsunamis to form in the oceans. Whenever there
is a sizeable earthquake in El Salvador, the news always reports about the
activity levels of nearby volcanos and if there is a tsunami possible.
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| This a picture of the San Salvador volcano taken from my apartment. It is one of the 23 active volcanos in El Salvador. Luckily, all monitoring of the volcano shows that it is not likely to erupt anytime soon! |
About a month again, in April, one of the faults that causes
earthquakes was very active. In 2 days there were about 400 earthquakes and about
45 of those that people could feel. One evening, the earthquakes were happening
every 10-15 minutes. This was a very scary experience for me and I felt like I
was just waiting for the next earthquake to happen. I am glad that there haven’t
been too many earthquakes since then!
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| This is a map showing where earthquakes happened in April. I live very close to the light green point that is marked. |
Since people in El Salvador know that earthquakes are
possible, people do many things to keep themselves safe. For example, there
aren’t as many tall buildings in El Salvador. Most buildings are only 1 story
tall and apartment buildings usually don’t have more than 4 floors. This makes
it less likely that the building will fall in an earthquake. In public places
there are always marked meeting areas so that families know where to go after
an emergency. When there are frequent earthquakes some roads that go through
the mountains are closed because loose rocks could fall off the mountains. After big earthquakes people can check in on Facebook
to let their families know that they are safe and there is a place to request
help if you need it.
In my apartment, I want to make sure that I am safe too! I
always leave out a pair of shoes near my front door so that I can easily put
them on if I have to leave my apartment. I also have a first aid kit near my
front door. I signed up to get updates about earthquakes and volcanic activity
so that I always have up-to-date information.
Earthquakes can be a little scary, but people do what they
can to stay safe!
See if you can fill out this worksheet about effects that happen because of Earthquakes! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B91xK8CIpJ_tZm4tOUpQOFNBYnM/view?usp=sharing
