One of the most useful features about following Twitter Trends is actually instantly knowing when something big is going on.
In this case, it’s something terrible we’ve been seeing in Haiti for the passed couple of days. It’s on a lower scale, but devastating nontheless:
Argentina 6.3 Earthquake
- Twitter Trend date: January 17th, 2010
- What’s the word: an off shore earthquake 220 miles of the coast of Argentina
Apparently a couple of hours ago a 6.3 quake rocked the Argentinian grounds from just off the southern coast in the Atlantic Ocean. It still seems to early, that CNN doesn’t have any coverage of this event yet, so Twitter might be the place to look for information.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern coast of Argentina on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of damages and injuries. The 6.2 mile-deep quake hit 220 miles off the coast of Ushuaia, Argentina, at 7 a.m. ET, the geological survey said. -CNN.com
This being a live event, I’ll try and keep updating this post with new information.
Update #1:
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centered 354 km southeast of Ushuaia, Argentina, the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, at a depth of 21 km, or about 10.5 miles down. The earthquake hit at 8am local time (1200 GMT, 8pm Singapore time). Reuters reports that no tsunami warning was immediately issued by the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. -SF Chronicle
There don’t appear to be any Tsunami warnings, so hopefully this will pass by without any casualties.
Update #2:
The quake happened in the Drake Passage (seen on the Google map below)
Update #3:
Here’s the situational report on United States Geological Survey’s (USGS)
Update #4:
As quick as it came, the Twitter Trend has subsided to a lower level of interest, as did the panic around it. There appears to be no damage whatsoever, just some freaked people.
Funny thing to see is that the people that actually lived in the vicinity were surprised to see “Argentina” as a hot item on Twitter. They apparently didn’t even know what was going on. This way Twitter definitly acts as a hype-creator and in that also a hype-powering system.
Conclusion: no one was hurt.
Popularity: 6% [?]
