When I first arrived in Santiago, one of the first things my host mother explained to me was what to do in case of an earthquake.
"When there is an earthquake," she told me in Spanish, "stay away from the windows because they could shatter. Don't close your bedroom door, because the house could shift and keep the door from opening again. Don't go outside, just stand by the front door; this is the strongest part of the house."
Then, she showed me a tiny crack in the plaster wall near the ceiling. "That is the sign of the last big earthquake," she told me. The earthquake in question occurred in 2010 and was an 8.8 on the Richter scale. For reference, that's almost 100 times stronger than the earthquake which hit Haiti the same year, killed over 100,000 people, and destroyed large sections of the capital city and nearby regions. You might have heard about the disaster in Haiti because a lot of people in the United States traveled there or sent money to help the country recover. Why didn't Chile need that kind of help?
Terromotos (earthquakes) are common in Chile. They range from big ones like the 8.8 quake in 2010 and 8.2 and 8.3 quakes in 2014 and 2015 to smaller temblores (tremors). Chileans experience temblores all the time; there have been plenty while I've been here.
