Sam Spade's San Francisco

In the photo: A map provided by the U.N. showing all the moderate and large earthquakes that have occurred around the world within the past 30 days. The Earth's Ring of Fire, which encircles the entire Pacific Ocean area, is clearly identifiable. Both Lima, Peru and San Francisco, California sit on top of the Ring of Fire. Today it is our turn to provide help to Peru. Some day, maybe very soon, we will be the ones in need.

The USGS reclassified the quake as an 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale. The rescue and relief effort is just now starting to move into high gear. Two Peruvian Air Force transport planes departed Lima this morning en route to the town of Ica. The town, about 200 miles from the Peruvian capitol of Lima, has been nearly leveled. The two plans will ferry more than 50 tons of relief supplies, medical equipment, medicine and food. The Peruvian national Police are using their helicopters to bring relief supplies to the seacoast towns of Chincha and Pisco, both of which were hammered by the quake.

To put the Peruvian quake into perspective, yesterday's magnitude-8.0 earthquake in Peru is the third earthquake this year of that size. On average, the Earth produces about one magnitude-8 or larger earthquake per year, and about 15 to 20 magnitude-7 earthquakes per year. A 1.0 increase in magnitude means ground motions are expected to be 30 times more intense and the shaking lasts substantially longer. Coastal Peru has a history of very large earthquakes. The August 15th shock originated near the source of two earthquakes, both in the magnitude-8 range, that occurred in 1974 and 1908.