Saturday, May 3

Evacuation orders and tsunami warnings have been rescinded after a strong 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the tip of South America yesterday.

The earthquake struck just before 10 in the morning around 135 miles away from Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city, on the tip of Argentina. It measured at a magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was located in the Drake Passage at a shallow depth of just 6 miles. The Drake Passage is an extremely dangerous area of ocean between the tip of South America, named Cape Horn, and the Antarctic Peninsula known for its massive waves and strong ocean currents.

The earthquake sparked tsunami warnings across the region, forcing thousands of people across southern Patagonia to flee to higher ground. Thankfully, most of the area is uninhabited, meaning that only a few thousand people felt the quake.

Dozens of aftershocks were also reported, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), with several reaching over 5.0 and one even measuring at 6.4.

The Drake Passage is a common area for earthquakes to occur, as three tectonic plates converge in the area. The Antarctic Plate stretches along the bottom of the passage and comes up west of Chile to meet the Nazca Plate at a higher latitude. Meanwhile, the Scotia Plate, a growing result of a divergent plate boundary, is sandwiched between the South American and Antarctic Plates, creating the several faults-- one of which sparked yesterday's earthquake.

Fact of the Day (BBC): Giraffes are 30 times more likely to get hit by lightning than people. While there are only five well-documented fatal lightning strikes on giraffes between 1996 and 2010, due to the population of the species being just 140,000 during this time, it makes for about 0.003 lightning deaths per thousand giraffes each year. This happens to be 30 times the equivalent fatality rate for humans.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they’re called memories. Some take us forward, they’re called dreams. (H. G. Wells)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Ziggurat (noun, ZIG-uh-rat) - A ziggurat is an ancient Mesopotamian temple consisting of a pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top. The word ziggurat is also sometimes used for a similarly shaped structure.

In a Sentence: Ancient ziggurats were always built with a core of mud brick and an exterior covered with baked brick. They had no internal chambers and were usually square or rectangular.