magnitude. according to the usgs, it s 8.9 in magnitude. and the aftershocks, upwards of 7.1. lynn, we spoke recently, a few minutes ago on the weather channel with dale grant with the usgs, and he was telling us that this earthquake, the 8.9 earthquake, putting this in perspective for you, haiti was a 7. this is magnitude, exponential, the force is ten times greater for each point you go up. so 8.9, lynn, 100 times bigger than the haiti earthquake. unbelievable. the big difference, though, also, is that when you compare haiti and japan, completely different as far as the regulations that you have for buildings. japan is top-notch. they have very stringent building regulations. while the damage is extensive, it s not nearly what we ve seen in haiti, with the 7.0. but again, 8.9.
if you compare it to the earthquake in haiti, with a magnitude 7, it s 100 times bigger. and we asked one of our experts for her reaction on that, and she described it as, well, it depends on how you determine that. if you determine it in the amount of energy, it s actually 1,000 times bigger. and for more on that, i want to go back to chris warren, our meteorologist there at the weather center. because chris, one of the other things we re looking at is that tsunami warning there in hawaii and the west coast. yes. lynn, i want to clarify a little bit there. we were speaking with on the weather channel, we spoke with dale grant with the usgs. and what he was talking about was putting in perspective the scale. the magnitude scale. and how you go from one point, like a 5 to 6, it s ten times worse. so it s exponential as you move up the ladder here. so you go from an 8.9 that we saw in japan, and the haiti is a
we asked dale grant with the usgs, what s the deal with the adjusting? newwe have an 8.9. earthquakes this large in particular, the sensors, the instruments closest to it are going to peg. so you have all this noise. you have to analyze the instruments farther away from it to get a better idea of what it is. so now what we have is an 8.9 earthquake, 231 miles northeast of tokyo. let s get dr. lucy jones perspective on that. you heard chris warren talking about how this is 100 times bigger than the earthquake in haiti. it actually gets a little more complicated, depending on what you mean by bigger. in terms of energy released, it s almost 1,000 times more energy. but it happens over a much larger area and over a longer time. the earthquake probably went on for several minutes. and the really big difference in the way you have that much
do you similar to the previous guests believe that the importance of building codes and building inspection and modern construction is what made the difference between this carrie calamity and the incredible catastrophe that struck in haiti? absolutely, building codes are crucial in any city close to a faultline and in this type of situation. kudos to the chilean government for enforcing those and i think it really did reduce the loss of life. geraldo: dale grant, thank you. and thank you for your patience as well. ladies and gentlemen, for the next 1:45 we will show you and bring you up close and personally to every corner and every aspect of this twin disaster, this incredible 8.8 magnitude earthquake that caused the buildings to all become leaning towers of santiago or concepcion in
well because they were older building and put up long before the new building codes were put in place. geraldo: a history of over 500 years from the spanish colonial days and i remember well on my various trips there that grand colonial architecture and hopefully it can be repaired and restored. jason mitchell, thank you u very much, global radio news. walter munio, a geophysic joins us from los angeles. i don t know if you can hear me but i can t just sit on the phone. who is this on the phone. dale grant. geraldo: i thought it was walter. we are live on television. millions of people now can hear your impatiens but thank you for being with us. tell us why the to the extent