Killer Earth
Killer Earth
The 1960 Valdivia Earthquake and the 2015 India-Pakistan Heatwave
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Kat and Vanessa cover the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile and the 2015 heatwave that hit India and Pakistan.
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Earthquakes, lightning, boring, rain, tornadoes, not means in a hurricane.
SPEAKER_02Killer.
SPEAKER_01Hey there, cat. Hey there, V.
SPEAKER_00How's it going?
SPEAKER_01It's going awesome. I'm just having so much fun with this podcasting situation. It's great. And guys, I got a new mic. Woohoo.
SPEAKER_02Woo-hoo. Um, yeah, we launched um on Thanksgiving uh last week and or last week, three days ago. And we had re we had recorded um our two episodes before. So this is the first time between launching that we're recording, and it's been so cool and exciting how many downloads we've gotten and how many people really like the podcast so far.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you all so much for supporting and um for listening. It means a lot. Um, the more you can subscribe and download episodes, that's awesome. Thank you. We really appreciate it. And we're we're hope you're really learning something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm learning so much. Yeah. Yeah, that's I mean, that's the feedback we've gotten from our friends and family who not no one's gonna be like too negative anyway if they hated it, but yeah, and you can still hate it, it's fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, if you wanna hate it, hate it. If you wanna hate it, but if you want to love it, we'd love that. Yes, we would because we want to keep doing this, yeah. I think we're gonna still gonna do it anyway, right? Yeah, we'll just keep doing it. Yeah, it's really fun again. More homework than I've ever done in my life, like with all the schooling I had, which wasn't like crazy.
SPEAKER_02Well, you you've like were bad at every subject, you said last year.
SPEAKER_01Pretty much, yeah. Oh, this must be a lot. This is a lot. I mean, I just wanted to paint pictures of the picturesque sky and picturesque sky. You said it like that. That sounded weird. Um, how was your holidays?
SPEAKER_02My Thanksgiving was good. Um I just spent it alone with my daughter because her school is super strict about multi-family gatherings. So we just chilled at home and did our thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, that's the smart thing to do. I did the exact same thing, it was like a gather, a really small gathering, and it was great. I actually really liked it, it was very low-key. Um, and I ate a lot of food, and that's what it's about.
SPEAKER_02So well, if this year has shown us nothing else, it's that you can eat Thanksgiving whenever you want, you're allowed. Exactly. You don't have to do it, and I will, yeah. I just think I will make a Thanksgiving meal whenever I want now because who cares anymore?
SPEAKER_01Who cares? Eat what you want, eat pasta at midnight, which I do a lot, or eat it for breakfast, which I do a lot.
SPEAKER_02I recently realized there's no reason, like nobody's telling me I can't or stopping me from eating crab raingoon for breakfast. Who made the rule that you can't do that?
SPEAKER_01So exactly. Like, I'm actually not a breakfast person, like I don't crave eggs and bacon. I mean, I love it. Don't get me wrong, I'll get I'll like eat it, like at a nice brunch spot or whatever. But I mean, I will go right in for the leftovers from yesterday's dinner and just eat that and be so fine with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh, I love leftovers for breakfast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like the best. It's the best. I just don't crave the eggs and bacon situation all the time. I don't either. Cool. Well, I'm glad you got you had a good holiday. And I hope all of you out there did as well. I know it's a really tough year. We're all hanging in there.
SPEAKER_02It is getting through it. Yeah. Well, we should probably say who we are in case this is the first time someone's listening and has no idea who the fuck we are. Yeah, that's a really good idea.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'm Vanessa Hill. And I'm Catherine Gifford. And we're best friends, we're best friends, and we're bringing you all of the stories that you need to know about. You need to know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You got your true crime podcasts, you got your gossip podcasts. We're we're bringing you natural disasters and weather.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Because we're just a couple of dorks.
SPEAKER_01We are, and we're not scientists, but we love all of the situations that we're bringing to you.
SPEAKER_02We are not scientists, you're right. But yeah, we're like journalists. Kind of, kind of, not really.
SPEAKER_01Well, this has been fun researching, and I can't wait to get into our stories. So, who's gonna go first? I'm gonna go first tonight. Okay, yeah, because I went first last night, or not last night, but the time before. So last time, yes. Last time.
SPEAKER_02Oh, did you mention, did I imagine? Oh, yeah. Did you say you had a correction?
SPEAKER_01I had well, yeah, it's kind of a correction, but I don't really know if it's a correction. Um, when I was thinking back on the story of Jacob's well, where they cemented, which is what I got from that article, the grate on the fourth chamber, yeah, to keep people out of that chamber because it was so dangerous. I was, I still it like kept me up at night. I was like, how did they do that? Like, I can't figure it out. Then I was like, oh wait, duh, underwater welding. Oh, yes. But the article said cemented. So I'm trying to cement like the with like the scraper tool and like a bucket of like, and I'm like, how is this happening? It's already dark, it's already like really dangerous. You're like putting all this, like kind of essentially I don't know, it didn't even make sense until I was like, oh, that's probably how they did it.
SPEAKER_02Um, so what so the sentence, whoever wrote it probably was using the word cemented as a synonym for like sealed. Okay, or even yeah, they probably they didn't really, yeah. But we were both like, oh my god, how did they cement things? I know. We were like, that doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_01So stupid. We're not construction workers, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know what else bothered me that about mine that I just remembered about my story last time. Um I feel like I didn't express enough or didn't even say that the the volcano Mount Tambora, um, it actually like erupted for like three months. Whoa, it didn't stop. It it had its like initial explosive eruption, but then it kept erupting. And I feel like I made it seem like it just exploded on that like one day.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I mean, I guess I didn't even think about that, but that makes sense. Well, that was good to clarify. Yeah, yeah. We're always gonna help clarify things um to you all, you know. And again, write us in if you have any other additional notes or corrections. We're happy to hear them.
SPEAKER_02We definitely are. Okay, so should we start with my story?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're gonna start with your story, and I want you to go for it, go for it hard.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, coach. Go for it hard. I'll try. Okay. Um, okay, so um today I am doing the story of the Valdivia earthquake of 1960.
SPEAKER_01No way, and I okay, first of all, no idea what this is. Second of all, Maldivia. I'm sure you're gonna get into all of this, but no idea. So I'm excited to hear.
SPEAKER_02So the Valdivia earthquake, aka el terremoto de Valdivia, aka the Great Chilean earthquake, aka el Gran Terremoto do Chile Chile.
SPEAKER_00What is going on right now?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I have to say, um, I used to be fluent in Spanish, and I really did. I've actually lived in Spanish-speaking countries before.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, seriously, she's really good at it.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm not fluent anymore. And there were a lot of Spanish words in all of the research that I did that I legit can't pronounce just because I'm out of practice. Um, but I also just want everyone to know that I'm not some like asshole that thinks it's cool to pronounce Spanish words, you know, Spanish-y way. I actually like the this is how I really pronounce Spanish words when I'm in conversation because I used to speak it fluently. Like for years I spoke it. So I'm just warning everybody. Yeah, no, I'm a jerk. I really like know how to okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_02There's gonna be some words that I stumble over, but whatever.
SPEAKER_01At least you learned it fluently. Like I had, let's see, maybe over eight years of Spanish classes in my life because I grew up in Dallas, and obviously, like that's like a language that's very um, it's like an optional language between Spanish and French. Like, which one do you want to learn? I chose Spanish, eight years plus. I don't even remember any of it. Well, I I have like a couple words, obviously, and I can hold a small conversation, but I really want to be fluent in it. But one of the only times I can remember in my Spanish classes when my Spanish teacher used to call me a silly sausage.
SPEAKER_02Why? That's not even I don't know. It had nothing to do with anything. That's not even Spanish, though. I know that's an English insult. Is it an insult? I thought she was just trying to like be nice. I mean, if someone called me a silly sausage, I would be like, whoa, okay, that's not a nice thing to say.
SPEAKER_01Well, she did it with a smile. Well, she's a bitch, she's a she was actually kind of really nice, but like I don't remember any Spanish, unfortunately. So it just wasn't a good situation.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, I'll I'm not gonna use too much Spanish, but we'll do it. Okay, so um I chose this particular story to tell tonight because this, the Valdivia earthquake, is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in human history. What? Ooh. Yeah. I wanted to like my first earthquake for the podcast. I wanted to start out strong. Wow. Okay, yes, I love this. Which is it's probably the reason I chose the volcano from last episode, the tambora, because that was the biggest volcano.
SPEAKER_01So you're taking all the big ones. What about me? I know I'm taking it. Am I gonna have all like the little ones?
SPEAKER_02But just because it's the biggest one doesn't mean it's the most interesting, right?
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I got my info from National Geographic, Wikipedia, the Smithsonian, and then several other websites, like geology websites, and I did a lot of Googling for this, like more so than I've done for the other ones.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, we're still new at this guy, so we're getting better at our research as we go.
SPEAKER_02So yeah. Okay. So it is 1960 in coastal Chile. Um, and you know, Chile is on the is it is it do people call it Chile? Or is I thought I always called it Chile? Yeah, that's not the right way to pronounce it. It's Chile.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. Interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_02But it's also, I mean, maybe like saying Mexico instead of Mexico.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That kind of thing. Like you're technically not saying it right, but whatever. So um, do you know where Chile is?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do. It's in South America on the don't look it up. Left side. No, I'm not left side of the country, right? Yeah, so it's the is it are under Argentina?
SPEAKER_02Or no? No, it's the long, skinny country on the southwestern side, and it's next to Argentina. Got it. And it's below Peru.
SPEAKER_01I definitely want to go there.
SPEAKER_02Can we add this to the list? Yeah, okay. Um, okay, so 1960. There are three very strong earthquakes, which are named the Concepcion Earthquakes. Concepcion in Spanish means conception.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And Concepcion is also a coastal town in Chile. So there are these three earthquakes that occur starting on Saturday, May 21st.
SPEAKER_01Sorry again. You you said the year, but I forgot.
SPEAKER_021960. 1960. Um, so their epicenters are located in three different regions, um, but they're all kind of in the same area. Um, and they register as three of the strongest earthquakes on earth for that year. Wow.
SPEAKER_01But like, okay.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. So there's so the seismic activity in this area is popping off, basically. Okay. Something's happening. Something's good, something's going on. Okay. So on the 21st at 6.02 a.m., the first of these three earthquakes happens. It's an 8.1 on the Richter scale, which is so huge. So I'm I know everybody knows what the Richter scale is, but just to reiterate, it's the scale that measures the magnitude of an earthquake. What's the highest on the scale? Do you know? I will get to that. Okay, sorry. Um, so the number on the scale that the earthquake is measured at at its highest amplitude um is that's like how how you get your Richter scale rating. So it doesn't mean that the in it doesn't mean that the magnitude of the earthquake was sustained the entire time. It means it reached that at some point in the earthquake.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02That's how that works. It's kind of like when we were talking about Hurricane Katrina and like the the category rating, like those sustained wind. It's not that the winds were that powerful the whole time, they just got to a certain level, even if they decreased. Yes. Okay. So in theory, the Richter state Richter scale cannot be capped. It doesn't, it doesn't go from like one to ten or one to twenty. In theory. Technically, there's no limit to it.
SPEAKER_01Um because like at one point it could just go crazy and like it could get bigger than yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's the well, this is how earthquakes work. So there's nowhere on earth that a 10 on the Richter scale can occur. It's not possible.
SPEAKER_00What?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. You can get up in the nines, but you can never have a 10 on the Richter scale. Wow. Okay. So this is because the magnitude of an earthquake is related to the length of the fault where it occurs, with faults being the fractures on the Earth's crust. Yes. There is no fault long enough in length on Earth that could cause a 10 earthquake on the Richter scale.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So there's never gonna be a 10, an 11, whatever on the Richter scale. So just know that. Interesting. Yeah. Okay, so this first earthquake occurs on the 21st. Telecommunication systems are cut off to southern, like central southern Chile. Um, and the president uh starts rolling out relief efforts. So it's it's really bad right away. The next day on Sunday, the 22nd, the second and third Concepcion earthquakes occur at 6.32 a.m. and 2.55 p.m. respectively. These ones are a 7.1 and a 7.8. Wow. So they're also big ones. It's huge, yeah. 16 minutes after the third Concepcion earthquake, the Valdivia earthquake occurs. So these three smaller earthquakes were just what we call four shocks, you know, like an aftershock. Yeah. Well, you can have four shocks F-O-R-E of like a big ass earthquake. Oh, okay. Yeah. Weird. Yeah, which is terrifying. Yeah, that's so terrifying. Yeah. Okay. So at 3 11 p.m., uh the Valdivia earthquake quakes. She shakes the shit out of a 150,000 square mile area. Wow. Um, between Talca, which is like in central Chile, and Chiloe Island, which is um like southern Chile. Oh, okay. Yeah, for 10 straight minutes. This huge coastal area and inland also, of course, but um that's so scary for 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Like you think the earth is like you think you're dying, like at that point, like the earth is like caving in, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So um Valdivia uh registers as a 9.5 on the record.
SPEAKER_019.5, and you can't even get to a 10. So that must have been awful.
SPEAKER_02So there's never been some websites said 9.6, but I feel like more said 9.5. So there's never been an earthquake that's that's um registered higher than that. This is the this is the top. Wow. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So coastal villages up and down the coast um are hit super hard by this, with the city of Valdivia being the hardest hit, hence the name of the earthquake. Yeah, because I feel like earthquakes are usually named after the cities that they fuck up the most, or like the region. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I'm trying to think of other earthquakes. They're yeah, they're always called like the San Francisco earthquake.
SPEAKER_01Right, exactly. Yeah, that's what I was just thinking, actually. It's not, yeah. It's not like a hurricane where they name it, you know, a different name. It's like it's where it happened that they name it. Right.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so the main port in Valdivia, uh, it's called Corral. Um, it sees immediately, almost immediately, a 13-foot rise in the water level. 13 feet. Oh my gosh. There's a ship. I mean, there's a lot of these little stories about like everything that happens to people and buildings and ships in the area when this happens, but I picked, I just like cherry-picked some that I thought were interesting. So there's this ship that was just like chilling in the mouth of the Valdivia River, um, which is right there, and it starts getting dragged a mile back and forth up and down the river by the water, the tumultuous water.
SPEAKER_00Whoa.
SPEAKER_02And it just it's and then at some point it just sinks. Oh no, it's just chaos, like the rip, the water, the rivers, like wait, were people on this boat? Yes, there were, and a bunch of them were able to get off, but two people died on the boat.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, yeah, how did they get off that boat if it's going a mile back and forth? Like, how did they before?
SPEAKER_02It said that they were able to bail and they were able to get off.
SPEAKER_01Wow, they must have been strong swimmers. I don't even know. Yeah, I'm not or like I don't know, but I'm just picturing trying to get off that situation where you're going back and forth for a mile.
SPEAKER_02So this ship was called the Canelos, and you can still see the mast sticking out of the river to this day. They never dredged it up.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That always creeps me out, like shipwrecks. That's like the biggest thing. Like, especially if you can see like remnants coming out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's because two people died on it, too. I know it's so scary. Okay, so um, so the earthquake happens at 3 11 at PM at 4 20 p.m. A 26 foot tall tsunami wave hits the coast of Chile between Concepcion, which is north of Valdivia, um, and the island I mentioned before, Chiloe Island. So that's like 525 ish miles like stretch. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So we pummels the coast of Chile. 10 minutes later, another tsunami, this time um 33 feet high. No. Hits the coast. Oh my gosh. Then there's more waves, and the highest was 82 feet.
SPEAKER_01No, stop it. Which what how high is that? That's so high. Okay. So my I was just thinking when you said 13 feet, my I was like looking at my apartment building, and I was like, okay, how many feet is it from the floor to my ceiling? And I was like, maybe 13 feet. And now you're saying 82 feet high a wave. I'm like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, remember we were talking about this. So like a two-story home is like 20 feet. Yeah. So that's like four two-story homes stacked on top of each other. Ew, no. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01And like also it's a tsunami, and it probably went inland so far.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, it devastates these coastal communities. Um, it kills a lot of people, destroys ports, like sinks and strands ships. It's it's bad. Yeah. It's really bad. Um in this town called Ancud, south of Valdivia, um before the tsunamis hit, but after the earthquake, a bunch of people jump onto like a bunch of boats uh to seek refuge.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Because they don't know what's coming.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so they jump on the boats. Okay. And are they are they going like out to sea or are they just on the boats?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like they're they're like go, they're gonna try to like because there's buildings collapsing and like the earth is shaking. So they figure they're safer on the boats because of course the water is is choppy, obviously, but it's not it's that's not a tsunami at that point, right? Yeah. Um, so all these people jump on a bunch of boats and a uh carabinero, which is a police boat, sees them and is like, I'll tug all of you guys to a safer place.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So they all hook up to this boat. Like how many boats hooked up to this one boat? I think it was like three or four or something. Okay. Um little do they know though that they're doing the worst thing ever.
SPEAKER_01Oh, because the 82-foot wave, like the third wave is coming.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, this is before any of the tsunamis hit. Oh, this is before the tsunamis, but after the earthquake. So, you know how with a tsunami the sea gets like regresses outward, yes. All the water gets dragged out, and that's a sign.
SPEAKER_01It's a huge sign. And like we'll get into that whole thing later, but yeah, if you see the sea receding as far as the eye can see, like, and you're just like, what is going on? Get out of there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the sea regressing pulls all of these boats out with the police boat included, and it sucks them out right to the like danger zone, and the tsunami completely engulfs all of them and destroys the boats and kills all the people.
SPEAKER_01Oh no. Were there a ton of people on these boats like seeking refrige refuge too?
SPEAKER_02I think it was like it wasn't like hundreds of people, but it was just like one of those like many little stories where people just didn't know what to do and were trying to survive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, that's terrible. So there's no telecommunication system, so like nobody can get on the phone. Um, you know, it's four earthquakes and then freaking tsunamis. Like people probably think the world is ending. These poor people.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_02Um okay, so back in Valdivia, um, several Spanish colonial fortifications are just like totally demolished. Um, and then soil subsidence starts setting in. What's that? So this can happen gradually, but in this case it happens suddenly. It's when the a chunk of the ground just sinks. Oh, like sinkholes? Not a sinkhole. It's not a sinkhole. It's just like it's like if you had like imagine like a it's like a an area of land just sinks down. Weird. So like if your house is on this this area, your house is just gonna like fall into the ground.
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_02So okay, it's not a sinkhole, but what I and this is very common with earthquakes. I did not know that. That's interesting. Okay, yeah. So this just is happening all over the city, like this town, like houses are just like dropping into like nothing. Like, um, and also soil subsidence, it deepens rivers, so it starts doing that. Oh, so like rivers are like dropping down lower, yeah. Um, it also creates new wetlands, yeah. Of course. Um, be yeah, go ahead. Yeah, because the land next to the shoreline just drops down with all of its like vegetation on it into the water, so it becomes like a wetland. So Valdivia, like not completely, but floods, extensive flooding. Um, the power grid goes out, no electricity, obviously, like the system is destroyed, it can't even be restored. There's the water supply is completely fucked. No, like there's no fresh water. Um, and mind you, this is like one of Chile's like rainiest regions, and it had also poured rain the day before. So there should have been plenty of drinkable water. No water.
SPEAKER_01Why wait? So sorry. So if they if they had plenty of drinkable water, then like why couldn't we?
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, because the earthquake like ruptures the water system.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, okay, and contaminates it and stuff. Okay, that makes sense, but oh, that's awful. So they no power, no water. No power, no water.
SPEAKER_02Houses are sinking, no communication to the outside world. Um, there are also numerous reports from witnesses that like in places where it wasn't yet flooded, like water is just like shooting up from the ground. Groundwater is like coming up through the soil.
SPEAKER_01Whoa.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, okay. Landslides are also happening. Oh god. Some landslides turn the Valdivia River completely brown at some point because of all the sediment. Yeah, makes sense. And the Valdivia River becomes completely like full of debris, like entire houses are just floating down it, probably lots of other things, like bodies and stuff like that. Oh no. Ugh, god, that's awful. Um yeah, it's a mess. Um, and if you Google images of these cities, like they're these beautiful coastal South American cities, like they're just they're like the architecture is beautiful, and they're all like just these like quaint, like fishing towns. They're so cute. Especially in the 60s. Like this charm, yeah. Um, and like the Spanish colonial influence on the architecture and the layout.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'd love I need to Google this. I'd love to see it. Maybe we can put some photos on Instagram or something.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we sure will. Oh. Um, so the heaviest damage suffered um are in areas where the land is tectonically depressed. Um, meaning it's like a sunken area caused by seismic activity, the seismic activity underneath it. And like the higher you are elevation-wise, like when you know, even if it's in the same area, the less impact you get. So the lower you are to the epicenter, it's worse. So it's it would be worse to be in a valley than on top of a mountain.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yep. That makes sense. I mean, yeah, from everything you said, that makes total sense.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah. The damage is measured by another scale used in earthquakes called the Mercauli scale. I think I'm pronouncing that right. Merk Merkley. It's either Merkley or Mercauli scale. Um, it measures the local intensity of an earthquake. So basically how bad the damage is in specific locations. Oh, okay. And there's different factors that um decide, you know, what what you are on the scale. Right. Um, the scale ranges from one, which means you didn't really feel a thing, to 12, which means total destruction. Oh. Um, so it's so funny that I put that in my notes because I didn't write down what they what it scored.
SPEAKER_01But hey, we at least learn the ratings system.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Wow. You know, again, we'll figure out it was up there. Yeah. It was up there. Guys. So Valdivia, and then this other town called Puerto Oc Octay. Octay, which is a town on the which is a town on the northern side of, I'm really gonna try to pronounce this. Yank Yankiwe Lake, Yankiwe Lake. Um, which this is south and inland of Valdivia. These are the two hardest hit towns. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it's a lake, so it probably like dropped down a little bit and made well.
SPEAKER_02It just, yeah, it was because of because of like the ground it was sitting on.
SPEAKER_01Right. The town, yeah. And then the houses and all that dropped down. So yeah, that's terrifying.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so two days later, on Tuesday, the 24th, there's a volcano that gets caused.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, stop at earth by the earthquake. You mother earther you she was pissed.
SPEAKER_02She was pissed.
SPEAKER_01Why was she so pissed at Chele?
SPEAKER_02I just don't know.
SPEAKER_01She's always pissed, I think, because we're kind of destroying it, which we need to stop, but all right.
SPEAKER_02Okay, Leonardo DiCaprio. No, oh god, just kidding. I believe in global warming away. Okay, so this volcano by the name of Cordon Calle, I think that's how you say it, erupts. Um, there were most likely other eruptions as well, but the recording system for eruptions wasn't working. So we actually don't know to this day. Whoa. Yeah. Um, because the volcano is located in a very remote area of the Andes, there aren't many eyewitnesses, and the media doesn't really cover it because the whole country is focused on like the devastation in Valdivia. So the first people to actually report the eruption is um a United States Air Force jet just happens to be flying near it that day.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02They're like flying to Santiago from somewhere. And they're probably like, yep, that's a volcano. Roger that. Holy moly. Like they just see a volcano. They're just like flying, minding their business, and there's a fucking volcano. Wow. Um, so the eruption continues for 55 days. Um, because more volcanic vents are blown open from it, like in the area, I think, or like on the same volcanic mountain, unclear.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And there are no deaths reported from the volcano.
SPEAKER_00Oh, good. That's a plot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like there's there are people that live in that area, but nobody is killed.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank God. We don't need any more deaths, and they've already been through so much at this point.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm gonna give you the death toll now. Oh, god, okay, what? So combined with the earthquake and tsunamis, the death toll is now it's there are varying estimates, but the best estimate I guess we have is 5,700 people. No, yeah, but guess what? What this is considered relatively low. Why? Due to because of the intensity of the earthquake, the intensity of the tsunamis, right?
SPEAKER_01Because you're doing you're covering like the biggest earthquake in history, right? And that we know of tsunamis.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. This is actually considered to not actually be a big death toll, and there's some reasons for that. So at this time, Chile had a pretty low population density. They didn't the Valdivia is not a huge city, it wasn't it wasn't like it hit Santiago, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, so there just weren't as many people to pick off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Another thing is um Chile was already practicing um like earthquake-proof engineering with their buildings. Good. Yeah. Not all of them, obviously, but there were many, many buildings in that area and in the the surrounding area because of the seismic activity that goes on in this place. Um, there were many buildings that were built like up to code or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Thank goodness.
SPEAKER_02That's yeah, so they stood up.
SPEAKER_01Um that yeah, it's still a really high death toll, but it's for the largest, one of the most like destructive like earthquakes in the world. That's you know, low. It's you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it, I mean, if it had hit a bigger urban area, forget it. Yeah, forget it. Um, so Valdivia is a mega thrust earthquake. What's that? Wouldn't that be a good name for a metal band?
SPEAKER_01Oh, mega thrust. Mega thrust. It actually sounds like a like a porn video. Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_02Which I don't want to watch. No, it seems like it would be really aggressive. Yeah, I just um, yeah. Anyway, sorry. Okay. Um well, I've I forgot to say at the beginning that Valdivia to me sounds like a pill you take for like erectile dysfunction.
SPEAKER_01You know. Well, also you said it was like something about conception. I was like, this is getting really weird right now.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. No, like um the religious term for conception. Yeah, like I think it has something to do with the Virgin Mary or something. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so a mega thrust is a type of earthquake that's very large. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01Okay, go, go. I'm sorry. I'll stop being 12 right now.
SPEAKER_02Yes, stop being like that. Um, get your mind out of the gutter. Okay, so it's it occurs in a subduction zone. So this means that one tectonic plate is being thrust under another tectonic plate.
SPEAKER_01I'm laughing because you said subduction zone, but I was thinking seduction, like what's going on right now?
SPEAKER_02The seduction zone.
SPEAKER_01Okay, sorry, I'll be real.
SPEAKER_02Somebody could write like a porno script using like earthquake, you know, jargon. Okay. Oh my god, you could have like an like an earthquake scientist show up to like take a like a reading.
SPEAKER_00Okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_02So, everyone, maybe we should cut this out, but I like it. Okay, all right. The strongest earthquakes on earth occur in subduction zones. And I I feel like this is like how I visualize earthquakes happening, like the drawings of them you you would see in school. The one plate going under another plate.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay, so the epicenter, um, it turns out, is near the town of Lumaco Chile, which is about 250 miles south of Santiago. Um, and not very far from Valdivia. It's like north and inland of Valdivia. Um, so I always thought before doing research for this episode that like the most damage from an earthquake was at the epicenter and then radiated radiated out and gradually lessened in intensity. Yeah. But I get, I guess usually that's true. But there are other factors that influence um what areas are damaged. And sometimes areas that aren't right, like aren't aren't as close to the epicenter, are actually harder hit and have more damage.
SPEAKER_01So I've got the same thing too. And like sometimes it's kind of like weird, it kind of relates to like a hurricane, like that epicenter would almost be like an eye, but it's not in the case of um earthquakes, but you know, like the the uh wall surrounding the eye gets the most damage, if that makes any sense. I I was thinking about that in my head.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, um, okay, so overall two million people are left homeless. Wow, yeah. 3,000 people are injured, and like we said, the the best death estimate is five thousand seven hundred.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so so terrible.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then adjusted for inflation. Um the top of the estimate for damages um is six point nine one billion dollars. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay, so let's talk about the tsunamis because I know you love a good tsunami. Oh my god, you know I do. I know it. Okay. So, like we were saying, Valdivia triggers massive tsunamis, but not they don't only affect the coast of Chile, they also surge across the Pacific.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. And I was thinking about that. Like, where did like on the other side, where did it go?
SPEAKER_02So they hit these tsunamis hit eastern New Zealand, oh wow, Japan, the Philippines, Southeast Australia, China, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01No way, were they as big as they were? They obviously weren't as big as they were.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah, they were huge.
SPEAKER_01What? Because it took it must have taken them a while to get all the way over there.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Oh, side note. Do you know where the Aleutian Islands are?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so it's that chain of islands that looks like the claw hook thing on the bottom of Alaska.
SPEAKER_01It's between the bears. Okay, yes, yes, yes. I don't, I yes, I know what you're talking about. I just didn't know.
SPEAKER_02It's where Dutch Harbor is. Yeah. From the Deadliest Catch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02And doesn't your brother-in-law. Yeah, he works.
SPEAKER_01No, he still works there. He's never. Oh, he still does. He's actually out to sea right now in Dutch Harbor. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the hey dumb. Um, yeah. So um the there it's like a there are sedimentary islands and they all they have steep, there's a bunch of steep volcanoes there.
SPEAKER_01No way. We need to go there. Is it part of the ring of fire?
SPEAKER_02I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or the the rim of fire.
SPEAKER_02The rim of fire. The rim of fire. Okay. Um, so back to the tsunamis. Okay, so the main tsunami caused by the quake, the big one, travels across the Pacific at 500 miles per hour. What? So that's how fast a plane flies. Yes, I know. Like, how does that even happen with waves? So, this is what's terrifying. A tsunami can get across an ocean in a day. What? That's how fast they are. Stop. Tsunamis are super fast.
SPEAKER_01Are you joking me?
SPEAKER_02No, that is so crazy.
SPEAKER_01I know that they're I thought I was like a tsunami expert, but I guess I'm not because that's blowing my mind.
SPEAKER_02You're you're definitely not, because you didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. Thanks for confirming.
SPEAKER_02Because you know, like I just feel like we'll go into this in other episodes, of course, but tsunamis they happen so like it it never seems like people really know that they're coming. Or they don't have enough time, they're fast. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I didn't, okay. So I know they're fast and I know like people don't know that they're coming, but also people, a lot of people aren't educated to know like how a tsunami works, and we'll get into that way later in the episode.
SPEAKER_02Um, but also like us, like we're some of those people that aren't educated.
SPEAKER_01Well, I okay. I've done a lot of okay. We'll go into the one that's like it takes a month, like no one does it. Okay, well, listen, I didn't realize it traveled 500 miles per hour.
SPEAKER_02It it they travel very fast, they're not slow. They they slow down to like 30 miles per hour when they as they reach the land. Oh my god, but they don't, but when they're in the ocean, and the deeper they are, the faster they are. Like they're fast.
SPEAKER_01I had no idea that they could like go from Chile, which I'm gonna call it now. Chile they call it Chile, but Chile. I had no idea that they could go from there to Australia, Japan, and like how how is that even possible? Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Let's go. So this one it devastates Hilo, Hawaii. Oh no, it kills 61 people.
SPEAKER_01And I'm sorry, this is really lame because it's a part of the United States, and I am good at geography, you guys. To say the I'm not like an expert though. No, I know, but what's Hile, the island?
SPEAKER_02Hilo, Hilo. It's it's like a city in Hawaii, it's a town. What which part which island? I think it's on the main island. Oh, okay. Sorry, I just didn't know. I actually don't know. It's I don't think it's an island. Yeah, I've been to Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01I've never been. I really want to go. I feel like my whole family's been, and I haven't been, so it's the best place.
SPEAKER_02Um uh okay. The tsunami also kills people in Japan. Um, it kills people in the Sanriku region of Honshu, Japan, which is the northeastern area on the main island of Japan.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's really, really sad. I cannot believe it reached all the way there. I'm still mind-blown. I said mind-blown. Mind blown.
SPEAKER_02My mind is blown. It's like I feel like that's how my daughter would say it. Yeah. She has trouble pronouncing words sometimes. I know. She's blown. My mind is blown. Um, okay, so some more environmental impacts back in Chile. Um, most of the landslides um are in the steep glacial valleys of the southern Andes. So they don't like cause many deaths or economic damage because it's so sparsely populated. Okay. Um, however, there are still a few landslides that occur in some of the coastal cities. And um there's a landslide that blocks the outflow river, the San Pedro River. Um in okay, I'm really gonna try hard to pronounce this. Rinye, Rinyehu. Rin.
SPEAKER_00That sounded so rare.
SPEAKER_02Rinue. Rinyue. Okay. Rinye, Renue Lake. I told you I can I can speak Spanish and I cannot pronounce this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's fine.
SPEAKER_02Um, because you were like I'm gonna call it Lake Rinye, Rinye. So this lake, its outflow river, gets blocked by a landfill. A landfill, a landslide.
SPEAKER_01We're failing really hard tonight, aren't we? What is wrong with me? Also, you're doing a great job. I love this.
SPEAKER_02I'm I haven't had a sip of alcohol today. I just want to make that clear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, like you're doing a great job. Like, this is a hard topic, guys. Like covering world events is definitely um a hard thing to do because we don't know how to pronounce these things. Well, I should, but um we're we're gonna work on that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so this is okay, so this river is being blocked, water's backing up into the lake, and then the water that needs to get out of the lake can't. Um, the there's a dam also that's water's putting pressure on it. Um so a team of engineers, hundreds of workers in the military tirelessly work to control the lake by like hand shoveling at times to unblock the river. Wow, good for them, but that's hard to do. And it works, it it works. Wow, it the dam doesn't get washed out and um the water outflow is restored and um it it would have been a catastrophic flood. So do you know, have you ever heard of the term a sagey?
SPEAKER_01No, I have not.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I have never I had never heard of a s of what a Sechie is. Um okay, so it's basically a rogue wave that happens in a lake.
SPEAKER_01Oh, oh my gosh. Okay, so I know what a rogue wave is, and it's actually like one of my biggest fears in life. Yeah, because you do a lot of ocean boating all the time, but like it can happen in the lake, like seriously. Um, just so like a small quick story, not to like sidebar your story. Um, my friend Seth and I and my husband went out to this lake to go have fun or whatever, and just like you know, go around the lake and have a good day. And a storm came right in that was not predicted, and the lake turned into an ocean. And I was like, oh my god, like a rogue wave could come like and knock us over. Our boat was going insane. So, anyway, just a side note. So it can happen at a lake, you guys. Like a you gotta be really careful and watch your weather.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I know I feel like people have a false sense of security on a lake, they do, as opposed to the open ocean.
SPEAKER_01Maybe not the people who are like in Lake Michigan or Lake Erie, because those lakes are huge and they already are kind of like ocean-esque, but like smaller lakes in Maine where I go to, or like smaller lakes in Texas, like I don't know. Um but it's it's definitely happened to me, and it happened, I think, like a year and a half ago, and it was scary.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if that was a Seichi. Um, it might be okay. Well, so this this happened, this particular one happened on a few different lakes after the earthquake, and this was caused by sediment slides on the bottom of the lake. Like, but I don't know, maybe maybe this maybe a seichi is like an umbrella term for any kind of like rogue wave that could happen on a lake, like what you guys experience. Yeah, it was what you thought you were going to.
SPEAKER_01The waves were just huge. I felt like we were in the middle of the ocean and we were like in a small, smaller lake. I was like, what's going on? So these seiches do kill people, yeah.
SPEAKER_02In in Chile. Oof. On the lakes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Is it a big lake? Like how big is this lake? It's pretty big. Yeah. Is it like one of the like the great lakes?
SPEAKER_02No, I think it's smaller than that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can have yeah, it can still happen in a big or like a smaller than that lake.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, I think it can happen in in any kind of lake. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01If there's movement under the ground. Oh my god, especially with an earthquake. Anyways, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02So um, okay, this is really dark, but I wanted to put it in. Okay. Um in a very isolated coastal village, two days after the earthquake, um these this native group of people called the Lafkenshis, Lafkenshis, um, sacrifice a five-year-old boy.
SPEAKER_00What?
SPEAKER_02No, because they they thought it would calm the earth and the ocean.
SPEAKER_00No stop.
SPEAKER_02Because they were getting really hit hard by the tsunamis and they didn't have the same infrastructure as the more modern towns. Oh my god. Um so they did this also because, and this is so strange. The little boy is considered an orphan because his mother um was living in Santiago to earn money, and she left him with her father. So they were like, Well, your parents aren't here, so well wait, where was the father? Oh, they don't. I don't know. He wasn't in the picture, I guess. Maybe he was maybe died, or God. So the local leader guy is like, he'll do. Let's use him before this.
SPEAKER_01Was it like a cult?
SPEAKER_02Like you did you say it was it's a tribal community?
SPEAKER_01A tribal community, which I totally respect. Tribal communities, like, don't get me wrong. And I know that sacrifices like way back in the day were like a part of life, which actually really bothers me because I saw like several like movies when I was little about that, and it like really freaked me out. But in the 1960s, I was hoping we had moved past. I mean, I think there's still tribal communities that do this shit, like sacrificial like deaths for little kids, though, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Cannibalism, but uh they also killed they also killed two horses as part of the sacrifice, the ritual sacrifice. So they end up being the people involved do end up being charged with his murder, the little boy's murder. Yeah, but they only do a few years in jail because a Chilean judge decides that due to their cultural and ancestral tradition, they couldn't be responsible. Like this is how they were raised, this is how they, you know, they were an isolated community. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I guess killing kids is okay if it's it's definitely not okay, and but I also can't like judge anyone in this situation because like there are so many tribal communities that you know I do judge them. I I'm judging too a little bit because like I don't kill a five-year-old boy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know it's like really because there it yes, like I'm of course, like they were just doing what they thought was right, but at the same time, there's there kind of is like a universal standard for well-being. And I think killing children in your tribe probably isn't gonna get you too far.
SPEAKER_01Also, you said this was in the 1960s, they didn't have like access to internet, they didn't have, you know, maybe and if they're very secluded, maybe this is all they knew.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, that's what it was. Like it could be it could be now. Like if you're a if you're a secluded tribe that doesn't have any contact with the outside world, you're gonna do what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it really bothers me.
SPEAKER_02I just can't like bring but I also don't think that that means that they should be immune from getting you know charged, convicted, held responsible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a it's that's a very tragic story, and I don't even know what to say about that, but yeah, it happens out there, you guys. It's really it's really scary.
SPEAKER_02What you're like, you guys, it happens. Watch out for those. I mean, sacrificing tribes. I mean, it happens. I don't know. Um, yeah, let's keep it moving. Yeah, let's like cut all that out. We're not gonna cut that out, but okay. Um, so the United States sets up a big field hospital, comes on down to Chile, and they help um the government do a much better, more thorough geological mapping of the area to use for rebuilding in future problems that we might have. Yeah. And then this is my favorite tidbit. Okay. Mexico comes down to Chile and is like, hey, we're gonna build you a big public school because I'm assuming several schools were inhabitable. So they build a big school, but they name it Escuela Mexico. Oh. And I just think it's funny that Mexico is like, we're gonna come down and build you a school in your destroyed city with no running water and thousands of dead people. But like you have to name it after us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's not cool. It's just like sense. Like, if you're gonna do that out of the goodness of your heart, like name it something after like the city that was destroyed.
SPEAKER_02It's it is yeah, it's like it's not even a big deal, but I just thought it was funny that Mexico's like, it has to be named Escuela Mexico, though.
SPEAKER_00Okay, because we built it. Oh god.
SPEAKER_02Um, so uh I think that's what I'm gonna end on, and that's the story of the 1960 Valdivia earthquake.
SPEAKER_01Wow, V good job! I learned so much again. This is amazing. Um, thank you. I um never heard of that earthquake, never even heard of the tsunamis that came from that earthquake that hit other countries. This is incredible research, and I I think you did a really great job.
SPEAKER_02You are so welcome.
SPEAKER_01Cool.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, um, should we take a break before we yeah, I think so for your for sure.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'd like to, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We will be right back.
SPEAKER_01And we're back from our little break. Hey, hey girl. So I am excited to bring you the story that I actually didn't even know existed, which is really sad on my part. Um, and I feel like a lot of people don't know about this. Um, but it's the heat wave of 2015 in the Indian subcontinent.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't think I know of this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it was only five years ago, and it was devastating. So let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So in India and in Pakistan, a major heat wave happened in 2015. It was an extended period of extreme heat that spanned the Indian subcontinent during April, May, and June in 2015 and resulted in more than 2,500 deaths in India and about 2,000 deaths in Pakistan. Wow. Yeah, super scary. Um, okay, so heat waves are very common in this region. So it's common in India between March and June. Um, and it all started in India. Um, the country's meteorological uh services declared a heat wave when the air temperature at the surface rises above five to six um degrees Celsius, which is nine to ten point eight degrees uh Fahrenheit above the normal daily maximum temperature of 40 Celsius, which is 104 Fahrenheit. And I'm saying Celsius and Fahrenheit because to any of the listeners out there that might not be from the US, I know you use Celsius. Um, I had to actually pull up a calculator to tell me what Celsius was to Fahrenheit because I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02I had to do that for my story with kilometers and miles. Yeah. So I feel you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, okay. So um they're very common there. And um as the normous, sorry, as the northern hemisphere moves into the high sun season, which is summer, during April, um, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating. Um Indian Pakistan usually rely on monsoon rains, which provides relief, but monsoons don't arrive until early June, and they typically do not fall on the north of India, um, like the northern region of India, until early July. In most years, some relief is found in the form of pre-monsoon rainfall driven by southwesterly winds passing over the Arabian Sea that can start as early as April. But from April to June in 2015, there was a high pressure system uh lingering over the subcontinent that kept the pre-monsoon rain away. So they had like no relief at that time. Um, so in May 2015, a severe heat wave struck India. And um I have a little map here of the different um degrees of Fahrenheit at least that like tell us like how hot it was there. And I've been in Texas before when it was like 103, even up to like 107, which is like some of the hottest days. And I've been outside for literally two minutes and I'm running back into inside. I'm like, I have to get into the AC or I'm gonna die. Like literally. Um Delhi um in India, the averages were about 45.5 degrees Celsius, which is 113.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Um, Ala, sorry, I'm trying to pronounce these as well. Alabad, which is about 118 degrees Fahrenheit, which is uh 47.8 degrees Celsius. Um, this is a really hard um city to pronounce for myself. Um uh Harsaguda, and I'm sorry, that's like what I'm reading, um, was 113.7 degrees Fahrenheit and 45.4 degrees Celsius. Hyperbad um was 115 degrees Fahrenheit, 46 uh degrees Celsius, and um Kamam, which uh was 48 degrees Celsius, 118 degrees Fahrenheit. So like literally again, I felt about 107. I have never experienced anything like 100 degrees degrees Fahrenheit. Like you're that's nuts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is nuts.
SPEAKER_01Um so basically what was happening is like the infrastructures um in India, um, you know, their electricity isn't set up um to the best it could be, and the high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities. Um, so there were power outages like everywhere, and people because people were like running their ACs like crazy just trying to escape the heat. Um, the heat wave saw the highest recorded temperatures since 1995, subsequently surpassed in May 2016 by a separate heat wave in Fallado. Sorry, again, these are hard for me to um I know spell out, but uh Faladoti, uh, which is a state in India. Um, and the hottest day there was 50.6 degrees Celsius, which is 123.08 degrees Fahrenheit.
SPEAKER_02123 outside. Ew, you can't be outside. How would you be outside? Well, there's like I don't know, and like unless you were like in water swimming, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01And okay, okay. It was considered the hottest day ever in India, but this heat wave in 2015 lasted for weeks. So, like, yes, they experienced like a the hottest day ever in May 2016, but the one in 2015 that lasted for weeks was you know around um 40 plus degrees Celsius, which was like, you know, the 113 to 118.
SPEAKER_02Now, did it drop off enough at night where people got a little bit of relief?
SPEAKER_01Um, I will get into that. Okay. So by June 3rd, 2015, 2,500 people had died due to the heat in India, which is a ton considering um this all started happening um in um, you know, like a week prior. Um, most of the fatalities in India attributed to this heat wave heat wave resulting from heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke. Um, it occurred occurred in the states of Andhra, Pradesh, and Telangana. Oh gosh, please, I'm sorry, you guys. I'm I'm doing my best to pronounce these. You're doing fine. Where the daytime surface air temperatures hover between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius, which is like 104 to 113 uh Fahrenheit. Um, but during the second half of May, or sorry, during the second half of May, that's like the temperatures they were feeling, which is really high. Several heat related deaths were also reported in the states of Odisha. Oh, sorry, they actually gave me a pronunciation. It's Orissa. Um, but they spell it O D I S H A. Um Garis. Oh gosh, these are all the different places. Garjaha and West Bengal. That's where they were experiencing a lot of the heat in India. The arrival of the monsoon rains in India in June brought much needed relief to most of India. However, parts of Pakistan's neighboring Sindh uh Sindh okay, S-I-N-D-H province had yet to experience the cooling effects of the monsoon and endured a period of uh oppressive heat. So, again, you guys, I'm sorry, I'm doing my best to uh pronounce these cities. It's just I'm not um accustomed to um totally different language.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Understand, I would have I would struggle with that too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, so I want to spell it out just in case. Um, I'm gonna call it Sindhi or Sindaich or Sindai. I don't know. Um, the Sindai Province um basically is what that what they're referring to is it's one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the southeast of the country. It is home of the Sindhi people. Um Sindhi is the third largest province, or sorry, province in Pakistan by area and second largest province by population after Punjab.
SPEAKER_00Punjab. Punjab.
SPEAKER_01So, okay, we got through a lot of the city names, and I apologize. Um, so now so we just experienced this like horrible thing in India where you know 2,500 people died because of the heat wave. Um, and then they got the monsoons, but now the monsoon has not reached Pakistan. And so Pakistan is experienced experiencing this heat. And then um, so basically have this like other map kind of outlying Pakistan and the the big cities of what they were experiencing, and uh Larkana was experiencing 120 degrees Fahrenheit, um, which is 49 degrees Celsius. Um Turbat was be experiencing 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 49 degrees Celsius. Um Maltan was experiencing 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 40 degrees Celsius, and Rahim Yar Khan um was at 43 degrees Celsius, 109 degrees Fahrenheit. And then Karachi is the capital um of Pakistan, and it was um experiencing um 113 degrees Fahrenheit and 45 degrees Celsius. So a low pressure system associated with the monsoon um stationed in in the northern Arabian Sea deprived the coastal area, sorry, the coastal city of Karachi and surrounding areas of the cooling sea breeze for much of June. And temperatures in the city peaked at 44.8 degrees Celsius, which is 112 degrees Fahrenheit on June 20th. Um high nighttime. So to answer your question, high nighttime temperatures and humidity put strains on the electrical power grid, which resulted in power outages in some areas that rendered fan uh rendered fans, water pumps, and air conditioning. Um Karachi, again, is the capital of the province, um, which is a city more than 14 million people. So it's a huge city. Um Pakistan's biggest city. Um, Karachi, Pakistan is located north um, sorry, uh northwest of India. Um, okay, so from June 17th to June 24th, the heat wave struck Karachi, Pakistan. Uh temperatures started to rise on June 17th, 2015, and a temperature of 44.8 degrees Celsius, which is 112 degrees Fahrenheit, was recorded on June 20th. But the following days, it had been more than um 50 degrees Celsius, which is 122 degrees Fahrenheit, um, during the whole heat wave period, except on um June 21st. So, like there was like a week of really high temperatures, and then June 21st kind of cooled down for a minute. Um, and then according to the international standards of health experts, a heat index of um 41 to uh 54 degrees Celsius, which is 105 to 129 degrees Fahrenheit, which I don't even know how you survive 129 degrees. No, oh yeah, can cause heat exhaustion after a prolonged exposure. I'm like, duh, that's what I put in my notes.
SPEAKER_02I mean, if you I mean, obviously, like a very small percentage of people died, but if you're drinking water nonstop, and you're like, how do you survive that?
SPEAKER_01You you I don't know, you don't, and then like I'll get into the all of that too. Um, but it's you know, it's Pakistan, and also they just didn't have a lot of sterile water to go around either. And like they're always used to it being super hot there, so it's like nothing new, but this heat wave was beyond what they could handle, and it was for weeks, it wasn't just like a day. Um, okay. So, like I said, a sharp drop in the heat index happened on June 21st. Um, and it could be explained by the effect of continued hot and dry easterly winds on the day, which significantly reduced the um humidity. But the very next day the heat index rose to 58.3 Celsius, which is 136.94 Fahrenheit.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_01So you're like you're in an oven, you're like cooking, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And it's it must isn't it like dry heat in that region? I would think.
SPEAKER_01Well, they said they said humidity.
SPEAKER_02Um right.
SPEAKER_01So no, but like but isn't that kind of a desert area? Um it like, yes, it's very um, yes, it is a desert area, it's very hot there. They're used to it. I was watching all these videos where you know hundreds of people were just trying to find a tree to just go under, and there wasn't a lot of trees. There was like, and it was like not safe to be in your house. It was so hot in your house that you had to be outside, but like the outside wasn't doing anything for you either. Oh, and then I just realized you guys, I'm sorry, I forgot to cite my sources, so I gotta go back to that.
SPEAKER_02Um, the sources you can do it after too.
SPEAKER_01You don't okay, sure. I'll do it after. I will cite my sources after. Thank you. No problem. Um, okay. So okay. Um, so yeah, really hot at 136 um degrees out Fahrenheit, 58.3 Celsius. The body's normal temperature is 37 to 38 degrees Celsius, which is 98 uh degrees to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. If it heats up to 39 to 40 degrees Celsius, which is 102 Fahrenheit to 104 Fahrenheit, the brain tells the muscles to slow down and fatigue sets in. At 40 to 41 degrees Celsius, which is about um like 41 degrees Celsius is about 105.8 uh Fahrenheit. That's like really high. Um, heat exhaustion is likely and above 41 degrees Celsius, the body starts to shut down. Chemical processes start to be affected, the cells inside the body deteriorate, and there's a risk of multiple organ failure. The body can cannot even sweat at this point because blood flow um to the skin stops, making it feel clammy and cold.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. I think I've heard that. Like if you start to feel cold, you know you're screwed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's like so scary because you're so hot, and then all of a sudden you're clammy and cold.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's so scary.
SPEAKER_01I know. So, like if you do start feeling like that, you guys, this is when heat stroke starts to set in. Get yourself some medical attention, something, yes, please. Um, if not treated immediately, your chances of survival is unlikely. Um okay, so here's some interesting things that you can do to cool yourself down. And again, um, we're in a country that doesn't have a lot of resources. So um, or like anywhere, like if you know, if there's a major heat stroke, there's been heat strokes in the US. Like if there's um, you know, these are some things that you can do to like cool yourself down. So obviously, like wear damp clothes to lower the body temperature. Um, you can stick one's hand into cold water, which barely anyone had access to, which is like really sad, but that's like one of the things you do. Um, because your like um hands and feet and um head are what you know need to like be kind of cooled down first to actually cool your body down. Right. Um, placing fans next to windows as it will draw air from the outside, which should be cooler. Um, wearing looser clothes, which I found interesting because, like, I don't know, if I was in that situation, I just would not be wearing any clothes.
SPEAKER_02I know that the wearing of looser clothes thing is a thing because I know people that hike in like super heat. Yeah. And they always wear loose clothes, they don't wear like form-fitting clothes. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01I just thought that would like create more heat because you just have no, I guess it it has like the opposite effect. Oh, and then it says having a lukewarm shower rather than a cold one, which I found really interesting. Um, again, Pakistan like a lot of people like didn't have this resource. Um, fanning the face rather than other parts of the body, because obviously keep your head cool because it exudes the most heat. Yeah. Okay, so here's another interesting thing that was going on during this time. Um, so during this time in 2015, Ramadan was happening from June 17th to July 17th in 2015. Do you know what Ramadan is?
SPEAKER_02I do.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so it's a Muslim um holiday. Is it a whole not a hall? Is that it called a holiday?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a it's a it's a holiday, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and basically, um it Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Um, it is a month of fasting, prayer, and giving and self-evaluation observed by Muslims. Um, the month lasts 29 to 30 days, depending on the sightings of the crescent moon. You cannot eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset. So people are not drinking water, not eating during the day.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so another example of the belief system getting in the way of common sense.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It it it okay. It drives it drives me crazy, and I totally respect all of you out there who have your religious beliefs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it does nothing, it's just common sense. Like you have to drink water if you're in that area during a heat wave. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01So that was like a huge contributing factor to um a lot of the deaths, unfortunately. Um really.
SPEAKER_02So they so they directly linked like there were people actually refusing to drink even water in Ramadan.
SPEAKER_01Of course, yeah. Pakistan would usually experience about um 40, or especially in Karichi, okay. Um, Pakistan would usually experience about 40 to 50 bodies per day due to the city's violence, shootings, and killings. But on June 21st, 2015, they received an unusual high number of dead bodies starting to arrive at the morgue, which amounted to 100 to 150 bodies a day. So that's like a lot of bodies like a day. Um because of the heat. Um, during uh June 17th to the 24th, they received about 900 bodies and they had to turn away so many families because they didn't have room. They also ran out of space to bury the dead in cemeteries, so it was like mass, mass chaos. Like the hospitals didn't have room um to like take in patients, and then the morgue was like getting over, you know, it was just too many bodies, and the cemeteries ran out of plots. Um unfortunately, up to 260 bodies were never identified because they were homeless and just weren't claimed. I know. So sad. I know. Um, the weakest and most vulnerable uh were the elderly and the sick, obviously. Um, you know, and just trying to stay cool was really hard. Um, a man named Sharif Ali, who was 65 years old, he said, I have seen so many hot summers in Karichi, but this was suffocating heat. I have never experienced it before. It was difficult to breathe as if the air had no oxygen. He also lost his wife to a heat stroke. I know. A lot of people blamed um the Pakistan's meteorological, sorry, meteorological why can't I talk? A lot of people blamed Pakistan's meteorological department due to giving any warning about the heat wave. So, like no one told him it was coming.
SPEAKER_02Uh so I'm wondering why that is.
SPEAKER_01Well, also like India had just experienced it like prior to them. So people should have been more, you know, notified. Like, hey guys, like India is going through this horrible time. This could happen to you.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, I would think that they would be on top of it and they would have formal warnings, but yeah, maybe their meteorological system isn't up to snuff. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. The hospitals had no way to cope with the overwhelming amount of people needing help. Um, Dr. Sami Jamali said, we are used to a bit of chaos, but the scale of the um calamity was too big. Um, this doctor uh worked at a major hospital in Karichi um called the Kareichi Jenna Hospital. She also said with thousands of angry and distraught people outside of the hospital, the situation could have turned violent. Um, if the army hadn't have shown up to restore order, we wouldn't have been able to help thousands of heat stroke patients. So, like basically it was total chaos because people were so upset. Like, think about it. Like, if my mom or my sister, even my daughter or son, is like dying, and I can't get into the hospital because there's no one to take them in. Oh, yeah. We I it's just awful. Yeah. Um, also, a lot of people blame the government of Pakistan run by former president Asif Ali Zardaris. And sorry, um, um, he's the president, and they blamed him and the PPP party for moving too slowly to address what was going on. While hundreds were dying, the president flew out of the country and was unresponsive to the tragedy. So he was like, Oh, I'm out of here. Bye. You guys can like all go great job. What did uh like not sweat? I guess they couldn't even sweat, but he was just like, I'm out, which is like horrible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's not a good decision or thing. Yeah, like what a dick.
SPEAKER_01I know. Um, a week later, the president's son flew back to Karichi and visited the heat stroke patients at a government hospital. And I wrote in my notes a little late, bro, but at least you eventually flew back. Well, his son, it's he sent his son. Well, his son, I just came back. I don't know if the president sent him. I think the son probably had like a conscience that was like, I have to go back. The president was like still like chilling wherever he was.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, where were they at their like side resort? I didn't were they at their Mar-a-Lago.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Like, I guess I could have like done more research on that, but like he was like out. He probably went to like Alaska. I don't know. He like got out.
SPEAKER_02He was probably chilling on the Mediterranean, probably, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And um, by this the time the son came back and visited visited like patients, um, 1,200 people were dead.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_01The president's son, when he came back, also gave no explanation for the slow response, but instead blamed the deaths on power cuts, and they accused Karichi's privately run electricity company called K Electric of being responsible. So they didn't take any, you know, credit. They were just like, or any blame. They were like, okay, we're gonna blame this on the electricity company. Um, there were power outages due to so many people who had AC units. Um, and um, they had to like spread out the power. So it was really interesting when I was reading it. Like some cities would get power or some places of um Pakistan would get power some nights, and then they like distribute it to another city. So it was like trying to provide relief and break it up, but it wasn't doing a good job. There were also, um, sorry, there was also a surge of um purchases in in AC units. Um, a lot of the prominent electronic companies were selling AC units at a normal rate, but then there was like a lot of these um companies selling at a super high rate because they knew they could get the money because people were desperate for these AC units. But obviously, like there were so many people that were so poor there, so they couldn't even afford them. And these companies are just jacking it up the price. Um, other issues were that Karachi had um I think it's pronounced Karachi. Probably, sorry.
SPEAKER_02Because I was just listening and I'm like, I've heard this before, like on the news. Couldn't be Karachi.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that sounds probably better. Sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_02No, it's not a big deal. I just was like, I think, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, other issues were that Kara Karachi.
SPEAKER_02Because yeah, it's K-A-R-A, right? Karachi.
SPEAKER_01Well, you're the grammar person here, so you can help me with it.
SPEAKER_02It's not grand. I just I mean, I just like murdered a bunch of capitalizations myself, like or capitalizations, pronunciations.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, these are like so hard to pronounce.
SPEAKER_02It's hard to pronounce words, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Karachi. Sorry, okay, perfect. I'll go with that going forward. Um, other issues were that Karachi had a major issue with waste management and sanitation, and the water that they do have is not sterile enough for people to use. Also, because of the high demand for water um for humans, water was being depleted for the use of crops and even animals. Um, and you know, depleting from crops would cause like a huge famine. Right. Um, the morgue did not have enough electricity due to the power outages, and the cold storage system was failing due to this. It was so bad that reporters who went to the morgue said that they pulled up and they could smell the bodies from outside. No, oh not doing it.
SPEAKER_02How do you go in that building without vomiting?
SPEAKER_01I would have vomited like getting outside, I would have had to like get back in the car.
SPEAKER_02I've never this is gonna sound this is gonna be the strangest sentence ever, but I've never smelled a dead, a dead person. But yeah, like I've heard it's the worst smell ever. And before you've smelled it, you don't know what like it's such a unique smell. I I heard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and like when I went to college for forensics, well, I didn't go there for forensic science. I took a forensic um science class because I really wanted to be a forensic scientist, like that was like my thing, and I still have the books from it, and I love the books, and I won't get rid of them. Um, but I failed that class also miserably because I didn't get it. I was like, I don't understand how to work. It's science. Free class you take besides art. I I know a problem with I know. Well, this was a science class again. It was so hard. They would basically give me like raccoon bones and then like animal bones, and there were like like shards of it, not like even the whole bone. They'd be like a shard, and they'd be like, Okay, is this an animal or a human? Is this a male or a female? And I was like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. It was really hard. So, anyways, um Then I realized, you know, after watching a lot of ID TV and after almost throwing up every time I take out the trash, my own like own garbage, like because I hate smells that I could never be a forensic scientist.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, I don't, I don't people that do autopsies and like crime scene investigators and even like detectives and police officers. The smell of death, I don't know if I could handle that. I can't. I really can't. That's crazy that it there's a heat wave and there's like hundreds of dead bodies.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it makes it so much worse, right? So, so terrible. Okay. Um, so here we go. The army did set up a um heat, like a heat, sorry, they set up heat stroke centers offering ice water, but it wasn't enough to go around. Um, people who did have access to making ice would make blocks of it and were doing the best they could to spread the ice around, but it wasn't enough. So, like um the videos I watched from the sources I'll site, um, you could see like people making ice, like big blocks and like chopping them off, and huge lions were outside just to get like a piece of ice. Wow, yeah. Um, overall, 2,000 people died um in this heat wave in Pakistan, making the heat wave the deadliest in the country's history. Um, also a lot of animals died too, but I could not find the number of how many. But um, also in the videos that I watched, um, there's like these poor animals with fur on them, and they're like breathing heavily, and like horses. Yeah, there's like people like with horses going around and they can barely breathe, and it's just devastating. It's awful.
SPEAKER_03Oh, horrible.
SPEAKER_01Um, okay, so I read bits of this report um from the government of Pakistan Ministry of Climate Change um technical report on Karichi heat wave of June 2015. Um, this report recommends the establish establishment of heat health warning systems targeting the vulnerable segment of the urban centers. This warning system will have essential components of monitoring and warning service and communication of the heat wave risk to the communities and enhancing their response capability to better cope with this situation in the future. Several key actors are identified in this report with the their possibility role. Sorry, what their possible role in establishing and um contributing. Um the report finally outlines some important recommendations to the decision makers that will ensure that the heat wave hazard will be tackled effectively in the future. Okay, so here are the different things that this report um basically proposes to um Pakistan. Um, capacity of individual individuals and communities may be built to respond to the heat stress during heat waves by raising heat health awareness campaigns in the country before the onset of heat wave season. Number two, subjects on the disaster due to different natural hazards and their management may be included in the curriculum at school and college levels. So, like basically, you know, talking about this in school, like what do we do? Um, green spaces may be increased by tree plantation in the city on an emergency basis. Uh, provincial and district governments should issue special directives in this content besides monitoring its implementation. Um, number four, the heat island effect can be counteracted slightly by using white or reflective materials to build houses, roofs, payments, and roads, thus increasing the overall albedo.
SPEAKER_03What?
SPEAKER_01It's uh albedo, um, a l b do of the city. Um the heat islands, which I mentioned above, um, are like unsub unsubsidized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Um, number five, green roofs are another method of decreasing the urban heat island effect. Green roof is the practice of having vegetation on a roof. The plants that are on the roof increase the albedo and increase the urban heat island effect.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know what that word is. I know. A-L-B-E-D-O. I know I meant to look that up. I meant to look that up. It's okay.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it means the proportion of the incident light or radiation that is reflected by a surface, typically that of a planet or moon. Huh. Interesting. Yeah. Um, and then proper town planning rules and regulations may be observed for all ongoing and in um future townships. And then seven, like obviously, this is a really good thing to have is cooling centers, which um they call it cool centers, but facilitating with drinking water fans, etc., may be established at public places and along the main avenues, besides protection and development of tree-shaded rest areas. So basically, they want to, you know, change the way houses are built, they want to uh make the roofs green, they want to plant more trees because again, a lot of the videos I said, um, they had a bunch of people just anywhere we could get shade, but they couldn't be inside, and then have these cooling centers um with drinking water and all of that to um prevent this from happening, and that is the story of the heat wave of 2015 in the Indian subcontinent. Wow, which I had no idea about, and I I feel really bad that I had no idea because it was five years ago, and you know, it's so far away, and that's so many people to die, and they need help.
SPEAKER_02Like, I well, I was gonna say too, if you have an urban areas with like especially a lot of like you know, poor and middle class people like living on top of each other, yeah, you have to have like cooling centers and like like green areas, and like you have to have those resources for people.
SPEAKER_01And also like a lot of the um houses that I was seeing, um, you know, just like looking at images and like the videos, you know, a lot of them are like tents essentially, uh which get really hot and there's like no AC in them.
SPEAKER_02Um I think I I honestly I don't know, but I feel like like Karachi's like pretty poor city. I think there's a lot of poverty there, and there's like with a lot of cities in India, I know a lot of people living in like you know, pretty um I I know there's dire conditions, essentially.
SPEAKER_01Like, you know, it's like you said, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like the slums, like this, is that the I don't know if that's an offensive word. This like kind of like the slums, like where there aren't act even actual like you know, what would be considered legal house like legal housing.
SPEAKER_01It's like of course, yeah. And they're like and I I don't know like what the term is either, like the politically correct term. Yeah, but um about that. No, no, no, no. That's okay because we don't know. We we can find out as we do more research.
SPEAKER_02Cause yeah, I mean, I've had like friends that I know people that have traveled in India, and they've just told me like you can't even imagine the poverty. You just you don't even know, like Americans don't even know what real poverty is until you see some of these places. And I know I'm saying something like super obvious that probably everyone knows, but if you add a heat wave to that of 120 degrees, good job.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. I'm sorry, guys. It took a lot to try to pronounce all the cities and also the Celsius to Fahrenheit. Again, I just want to be fair to all of our listeners out there that are from countries that just do Celsius, and that was just a lot to go back and forth.
SPEAKER_02And well, now I feel bad because I didn't do kilometers, but I was worried it was gonna be too much like too many numbers.
SPEAKER_01It is a lot of numbers, yeah. I just wanted to like ex like you know, really tell people of the heat because I I I'm not gonna go into that every time I tell a story like Celsius Fahrenheit, but the heat was just so high that I figured it'd be good to include for all of you other countries that do Celsius, and I'm this American, even looking up what that even translates to because I'm like, I have no idea what 50 degrees Celsius is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I learned a lot doing it, so well, that's all that matters then. I got my sources from Britannica, um, Wikipedia, CNN on YouTube. Um, they have some really great videos you can check out um there to kind of see like visually what was going on. Um, BBC News, the LipTV, calendardate.com, and the government of Pakistan Ministry of Climate Change.
SPEAKER_02Well, what a cool, fun episode we just had. Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01I think it went really great. Um, I hope you guys all learned something. We'll be back for more. We'll be releasing another episode very soon here. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER_02We think we're going to be releasing episodes on Mondays and Fridays.
SPEAKER_01We think we're still working that out, but we'll release them as soon as we can so you guys have more content.
SPEAKER_02Well, twice a week, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, yeah, cool. We just don't know the days officially. We're working on it though. Monday and Fridays are our goal, but it's all good. Yeah. All right. Well, good night, goodbye. Good night, goodbye, and thank you guys again. And don't let um Mother Earth scold you.
SPEAKER_02Kill you. Kill her or kill you. Okay, okay, goodbye.
SPEAKER_03Good night, good night.