What’s the likelihood of being the only Cornell student studying abroad in Chile during the world’s fifth-largest earthquake? I’ll never be quite sure, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting after packing up and leaving for Santiago in February. To be fair, I had been looking for some adventure … just not the kind you’d measure with a seismograph, I guess.

On Feb. 27, when Haiti laid in shambles from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that leveled the nation less than two months prior, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Chile. The quick succession of these two calamities jolted public conscience of earthquakes, rekindled curiosity about forecasting and generated speculation about the relationship between natural disasters and climate change.