B1 · Intermediate
15 min
sciencetechnologyenvironmenthistory
La Tierra Tiembla: Terremotos, Tsunamis y la Ciencia del Anillo de Fuego
The Earth Shakes: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and the Science of the Ring of Fire
Fletcher breaks down this story in English. Octavio reacts and expands in Spanish. Follow along with the live transcript, tap any word for its translation. Intermediate level — perfect for intermediate learners expanding their range.
So, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Indonesia this week.
One person died in Manado when a building collapsed, a tsunami warning went out, and then it was lifted.
And I want to use this as a way into something bigger, because Indonesia and earthquakes is one of those stories that never really ends.
Bueno, mira, el terremoto fue muy fuerte.
Look, the earthquake was very strong.
Magnitud 7.4 es un terremoto muy serio.
A 7.4 magnitude is a very serious earthquake.
Ocurrió en el este de Indonesia, cerca de las islas Molucas del Norte.
It happened in eastern Indonesia, near the North Maluku islands.
North Maluku.
The Spice Islands, historically.
The place that Europeans literally went to war over for centuries.
And now we're talking about it because the ground there just moved violently.
Sí, y una persona murió en Manado cuando un edificio se cayó.
Yes, and one person died in Manado when a building collapsed.
Manado está en el norte de Sulawesi, no muy lejos del epicentro.
Manado is in northern Sulawesi, not far from the epicenter.
Otras personas también sufrieron heridas.
Other people were also injured.
Right, and the tsunami warning.
That went out pretty fast after the quake, which is the system working as designed.
But then it was lifted.
I want to come back to how that whole warning system actually functions, because it's genuinely fascinating science.
La verdad es que la alerta de tsunami fue muy importante.
The truth is the tsunami warning was very important.
Después de un terremoto tan fuerte en el mar, las autoridades activaron la alerta inmediatamente.
After such a strong earthquake at sea, authorities activated the alert immediately.
Pero al final, el tsunami no llegó, y cancelaron la alerta.
But in the end, the tsunami didn't arrive, and they cancelled the warning.
Which is actually the best possible outcome.
The system fires, people move to higher ground, and then nothing happens.
That's not a false alarm, that's the system doing its job.
But let's back up, because I think a lot of people hear '7.4 earthquake in Indonesia' and they've kind of tuned out.
It's become background noise.
And it really shouldn't be.
A ver, Indonesia está en el Anillo de Fuego.
Look, Indonesia is on the Ring of Fire.
Este es el nombre que los científicos usan para describir una zona enorme alrededor del océano Pacífico donde hay muchos volcanes y terremotos.
This is the name scientists use to describe a huge zone around the Pacific Ocean where there are many volcanoes and earthquakes.
The Ring of Fire.
It's about 40,000 kilometers long, it circles the entire Pacific, and it's responsible for something like 90 percent of the world's earthquakes.
Indonesia sits right in the middle of one of the most active sections of it.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Indonesia tiene más de 17,000 islas, y muchas de ellas existen porque hay una actividad geológica muy intensa debajo.
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, and many of them exist because there is very intense geological activity below.
Las placas tectónicas se mueven constantemente en esa región.
The tectonic plates move constantly in that region.
So for listeners who maybe need a refresher, tectonic plates are these massive slabs of rock that make up the Earth's crust.
They float, more or less, on the molten rock beneath.
And where they meet, you get earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges.
Indonesia is essentially sitting on top of several of these plate boundaries at once.
Mira, hay tres placas tectónicas principales que se juntan cerca de Indonesia: la placa australiana, la placa euroasiática, y la placa del Pacífico.
There are three main tectonic plates that meet near Indonesia: the Australian plate, the Eurasian plate, and the Pacific plate.
Cuando estas placas se mueven, la energía que liberan es enorme.
When these plates move, the energy they release is enormous.
Enormous is an understatement.
Here's what gets me: a 7.4 magnitude earthquake releases something like 300 times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Three hundred times.
And Indonesia experiences multiple earthquakes above magnitude 6 every single year.
Es que la gente en Indonesia vive con esto todos los días.
People in Indonesia live with this every day.
No es una cosa extraordinaria para ellos.
It's not an extraordinary thing for them.
Es su vida normal.
It's their normal life.
Pero para el resto del mundo, un terremoto de esta magnitud es una noticia muy importante.
But for the rest of the world, an earthquake of this magnitude is very important news.
And you can't talk about Indonesia and earthquakes without talking about 2004.
December 26th, 2004.
Off the coast of Sumatra, a 9.1 magnitude quake.
The third largest ever recorded on a seismograph.
And the tsunami that followed killed roughly 230,000 people across 14 countries.
El tsunami de 2004 fue una catástrofe que cambió muchas cosas.
The 2004 tsunami was a catastrophe that changed many things.
Murieron personas en Indonesia, Tailandia, Sri Lanka, India, Somalia...
People died in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Somalia.
las olas viajaron miles de kilómetros.
The waves traveled thousands of kilometers.
I remember being in Jakarta about six months after the tsunami, talking to aid workers in Aceh.
The scale of it was just incomprehensible.
Entire villages gone.
Fishing communities erased.
And one of the things they kept saying was: there was no warning.
People had no idea what was coming.
Bueno, en 2004 no había un sistema de alerta de tsunami en el océano Índico.
In 2004 there was no tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.
Existía un sistema en el Pacífico, pero no en esa zona.
There was a system in the Pacific, but not in that zone.
Fue un problema muy grave.
It was a very serious problem.
Right, so the Pacific had a warning network going back to the 1940s, built largely after a 1946 tsunami killed 159 people in Hawaii.
But the Indian Ocean had nothing equivalent.
And 2004 basically forced the world to build one.
A ver, después de 2004, muchos países y organizaciones internacionales trabajaron juntos para crear sistemas de alerta en el océano Índico.
After 2004, many countries and international organizations worked together to create warning systems in the Indian Ocean.
Indonesia también mejoró su propio sistema nacional.
Indonesia also improved its own national system.
So how does the current system actually work?
Because this week, when the 7.4 hit, an alert went out very quickly.
That's not magic.
That's technology, and it's worth explaining.
Mira, hay boyas especiales en el océano.
There are special buoys in the ocean.
Estas boyas detectan cambios en la presión del agua.
These buoys detect changes in water pressure.
Cuando hay un terremoto en el mar, el agua cambia y las boyas envían esa información a los centros de control.
When there is an earthquake at sea, the water changes and the buoys send that information to control centers.
They're called DART buoys, Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis.
And they sit on the ocean floor, anchored, measuring pressure changes in real time and sending data via satellite.
The network now includes dozens of them across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Y también hay sismógrafos en tierra que detectan los terremotos muy rápido.
And there are also seismographs on land that detect earthquakes very quickly.
Los científicos analizan los datos en minutos y deciden si hay peligro de tsunami o no.
Scientists analyze the data in minutes and decide whether there is a tsunami risk or not.
Minutes.
That's the key word.
In 2004, it took hours for word to spread through informal channels.
Fishermen on beaches in Sri Lanka had no idea.
This week, the alert went out and was then cancelled, all within a manageable window.
That's a genuinely significant improvement.
La verdad es que la tecnología ayudó mucho.
The truth is that technology helped a lot.
Pero también es importante que la gente sepa qué hacer cuando escucha una alerta.
But it's also important that people know what to do when they hear an alert.
En Indonesia, muchas comunidades practicaron simulacros de evacuación después de 2004.
In Indonesia, many communities practiced evacuation drills after 2004.
The human side of the science.
And this is something I think gets underreported.
You can have the best detection system in the world, but if someone on a beach in Sulawesi doesn't know that the sea pulling back suddenly is a warning sign, the technology is only half the equation.
Es que hay comunidades en Indonesia que tienen esta información en su cultura tradicional.
There are communities in Indonesia that have this information in their traditional culture.
En la isla de Simeulue, cerca de Sumatra, mucha gente sobrevivió en 2004 porque sus abuelos les enseñaron que cuando el mar se retira de repente, hay que correr a las montañas.
On the island of Simeulue, near Sumatra, many people survived in 2004 because their grandparents taught them that when the sea suddenly withdraws, you have to run to the mountains.
The extraordinary thing is that.
Simeulue, which was very close to the epicenter in 2004, had a death rate significantly lower than many other areas, precisely because of that oral tradition.
The word they use is 'smong', meaning tsunami, and it's embedded in folk songs going back centuries.
Centuries of geological memory, essentially.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Es un ejemplo perfecto de cómo el conocimiento tradicional y la ciencia moderna pueden trabajar juntos.
It's a perfect example of how traditional knowledge and modern science can work together.
Los dos son necesarios.
Both are necessary.
Let's talk about measuring earthquakes for a second.
Because a lot of people still say 'Richter scale' and scientists kind of wince.
The Richter scale was the original, invented by Charles Richter in 1935.
But it was replaced decades ago.
Bueno, ahora los científicos usan la escala de magnitud de momento, que es más precisa.
Now scientists use the moment magnitude scale, which is more precise.
Pero la idea es similar: cada número en la escala representa mucha más energía que el número anterior.
But the idea is similar: each number on the scale represents much more energy than the number before.
Logarithmic scale.
So a 7.0 is ten times more powerful in ground shaking than a 6.0, but releases about 31 times more energy.
And a 8.0 versus a 7.0, same thing again.
The difference between a 7.4 and a 9.1, like 2004, sounds small on paper.
It's not small at all.
No, la diferencia es enorme.
No, the difference is enormous.
Un terremoto de magnitud 9 es increíblemente más poderoso.
A magnitude 9 earthquake is incredibly more powerful.
Por eso el tsunami de 2004 fue tan destructivo: el terremoto liberó una cantidad de energía casi imposible de imaginar.
That's why the 2004 tsunami was so destructive: the earthquake released an almost unimaginable amount of energy.
Look, one question I always want to ask about earthquakes: can we predict them?
And I suspect you already know my answer is going to be 'not really', but let's dig into why.
A ver, los científicos pueden identificar las zonas donde los terremotos son más probables, como Indonesia.
Scientists can identify the zones where earthquakes are most likely, like Indonesia.
Pero predecir exactamente cuándo va a ocurrir un terremoto es muy difícil.
But predicting exactly when an earthquake will occur is very difficult.
Todavía no es posible con precisión.
It's still not possible with precision.
And that's not for lack of trying.
Scientists have experimented with monitoring radon gas emissions, animal behavior, electromagnetic signals, ground deformation.
Some of these show promise in retrospect, but nothing has cracked reliable short-term prediction.
It remains one of the great unsolved problems in earth science.
Es que la Tierra es muy compleja.
The Earth is very complex.
Los geólogos pueden decir que una zona es peligrosa, pero no pueden decir: el terremoto va a ocurrir el martes a las tres de la tarde.
Geologists can say a zone is dangerous, but they can't say: the earthquake will happen on Tuesday at three in the afternoon.
No tenemos esa capacidad todavía.
We don't have that capacity yet.
So if you can't predict them, the only real answer is preparation.
Building codes, evacuation routes, warning systems.
And here's where Indonesia has a complicated story.
Because the country is vast, it's poor in many areas, and enforcement of building codes is genuinely uneven.
La verdad es que muchos edificios en Indonesia no son muy resistentes a los terremotos.
The truth is that many buildings in Indonesia are not very resistant to earthquakes.
Es un problema económico también.
It's also an economic problem.
Construir edificios más seguros cuesta más dinero, y muchas personas no tienen ese dinero.
Building safer buildings costs more money, and many people don't have that money.
And that's the quiet tragedy of natural disasters.
They're never just natural.
The earthquake is the trigger, but the death toll is a function of construction quality, infrastructure, response capacity, economic inequality.
Wealthier countries with similar seismic activity almost always have lower death rates.
Mira, Japón es un buen ejemplo.
Japan is a good example.
Japón también está en el Anillo de Fuego y tiene terremotos muy frecuentes.
Japan is also on the Ring of Fire and has very frequent earthquakes.
Pero Japón invirtió mucho dinero en edificios antisísmicos y en sistemas de alerta.
But Japan invested a lot of money in earthquake-resistant buildings and warning systems.
Los resultados son muy diferentes.
The results are very different.
Japan is extraordinary in that regard.
They have building standards that can handle earthquakes that would flatten comparable structures in other countries.
And they have a public education culture around earthquakes that starts in kindergarten.
Drills, procedures, clear signage.
It's genuinely impressive.
Indonesia aprendió mucho de 2004 y de otros terremotos.
Indonesia learned a lot from 2004 and other earthquakes.
El país mejoró sus sistemas de alerta, y también educó a más personas sobre qué hacer en una emergencia.
The country improved its warning systems, and also educated more people about what to do in an emergency.
Pero todavía queda mucho por hacer.
But there is still a lot to do.
I mean, this week, one person died when a building collapsed in Manado.
In a 7.4 earthquake.
That's actually a relatively low number, which tells you something about how much has improved.
But one death that might have been prevented by better construction is still one too many.
Bueno, y también hay que recordar que el tsunami no llegó esta vez.
And we also have to remember that the tsunami didn't arrive this time.
El sistema funcionó.
The system worked.
La alerta fue rápida, y luego los científicos confirmaron que no había peligro.
The alert was fast, and then scientists confirmed there was no danger.
Eso es un progreso real.
That is real progress.
Real progress.
And I think that's actually the hopeful note to end on.
The science of earthquake and tsunami detection has improved dramatically in the two decades since 2004.
The systems aren't perfect, the preparedness isn't uniform, and the prediction problem remains unsolved.
But the world is measurably better at responding to these events than it was.
La verdad es que sí.
The truth is yes.
La ciencia salvó vidas esta semana en Indonesia.
Science saved lives this week in Indonesia.
No todo fue perfecto, pero la alerta funcionó, la gente reaccionó, y el número de víctimas fue muy pequeño comparado con lo que podría haber pasado.
Not everything was perfect, but the warning worked, people reacted, and the number of victims was very small compared to what could have happened.