E
On this day, a radio interview with the geologist Jorge Rabassa of the Universidad de Río Grande was broadcast, who warned that sooner or later an earthquake will split the island in two at Lake Fagnano.
It was recorded in 1949 an earthquake of great magnitude, 7.9 on the Richter scale and one of the largest in Argentina, when the population was few and the attacks could be minor.
It is possible that a movement of this nature will repeat itself. In Lake Fagnano, the fault moves between six and seven thousand meters per year, which represents the most serious activity in geological times. It is one of the most active faults in the world and there are years when they can have twelve thousand or thirteen thousand earthquakes on their way”, he mentioned (Tueguian Chronicle).
“We know it’s going to be unfortunate, but we have no way of telling when or what the intensity will be. We can imagine the damage it can cause, but contingency plans are required that we cannot do. That is what the directors of provincial and municipal civil defense or national institutions dedicated to seismic problems,” he explained.
If an earthquake of this magnitude occurred, Ushuaia could be cut off from the rest of the island. “The movement along the fault is not vertical, but horizontal along the plane of the fracture.” One of our islands, two islands, because sooner or later the sea will flood Lake Fagnano, as it flooded the Strait of Magellan”, he warned.
“Why contingency planning is important, to mitigate damage and protect residents in the coming days. The earthquake, depending on its size, would also affect the port of Ushuaia and the airport itself, and the arrival of help would be a very serious problem. Our conditions are absolutely unique. In the worst possible scenario, if it happened in the middle of winter, when the temperature was twenty degrees below zero due to the effect of the wind, with four or five hours of daylight, with the roads blocked by snow. This is why we must have our own contingency plans, which are suitable for our situation”, he insisted.
The researcher also “predicted that for twenty years or less Ushuaia will not have the mills to produce drinking water from there (…) The outlook from climate change for the province is not good” (op.cit.).
