Earthquake!

[caters]

1 significant part of my Kepler Bb story is where an earthquake forms a very deep fault line right in the middle of the civilization. This is a big problem. The fish pond for Alma's eagle is close to the destroyed area but luckily it isn't leaking. But for any underground civilization, earthquakes, when they form fault lines are a problem.

Here is what happens:

Right when it starts: Whole civilization gets dusty so there is a lot of sneezing, allergy or not.

Minutes later: Tunnels get weak. Tunnels that have held up everything else so far are soon not going to hold up.

Minutes later: Tunnels collapse, trapping people inside them. Some get hypoxic, others injured, others both.

Now why the hypoxia? After all their atmosphere is higher in oxygen percent and total oxygen content than ours and they can breathe in even the deepest tunnels and chambers. Plus they naturally have an NSR of 40-80 BPM instead of 60-100 BPM due to 2 hearts in sync. And higher lung capacity means slower breathing. But this is only true if it hasn't collapsed. If it has and it is trapping people with the weight of it, when they do breathe they aspirate making breathing even more difficult. But not everybody gets injured. And not everybody gets hypoxic. But both of these numbers are significant(Normally, except at night, most people are in tunnels going from 1 place to another).

Babies are lucky. Every mom makes a sideways chest sling that looks kind of like this arm sling:

But this sling is not designed to immobilize a broken arm without total arm movement restriction. Instead it is designed to carry babies at the chest in such a way that the mom can easily turn the baby onto its side and have it interchange sides to feed the baby while getting as little dust and dirt into the baby's respiratory system as possible. So it basically keeps the baby in these positions:

Same position but different sides

And this is without the mom doing anything to hold the baby in her arms.

Hours later: Hypoxic people have died, injured people still trapped, homes and buildings are now at risk.

Even later: Some injuries are too severe and there are so many that Robin, who is a good doctor, can't take care of all of them so a fraction of them die(not necessarily a small fraction either).

A day later: Fault line defined, quite a bit of civilization is destroyed.

Now this earthquake is not between 2 plates. It is within the same plate.

So a significant number of people die but since moms are all in their homes and even if they aren't there are always some young ladies to take care of the babies in case the moms die, babies have no problem except possibly aspiration pneumonia(also known as pneumonitis) but even then, that is mild.

Now the surefire way to prevent this is to evacuate when you feel the shake and it is dusty but nobody knew this was coming. So now they have 2 options.

1) Evacuate every living person now in case this is just 1 in a series and form a civilization somewhere else(Making sure that Robin and Lisa take at least the interplanetary communicator with them along with Alma)

or

2) Stay put and build tunnels across the fault line where the original ones were(so in the collapsed areas)

But I have a few questions.

1) Would pregnant women be at risk of premature birth and miscarriage more than usual during an earthquake?

2) Without an ICU, I can only think of 1 way to sustain a micropreemie such as this one:

That is nutrient IV + Heart-Lung machine until it is mature enough. Then start introducing breastmilk slowly and have him/her breathe on his/her own.

But is this the only way to sustain a micropreemie if there is no ICU or if the ICU gets destroyed?

3) Should they evacuate or stay put? On one hand, evacuating saves more lives. On the other hand, evacuating means it will take x years to get back to original civilization status and staying put means that Alma can simply make another pond and connect it in case her original pond is destroyed.

 

[CupofJoe]

To answer your questions without a lot of deep thought...
1) I can't see why... they might be more at risk during an event because of the disruption but not because of the event itself.
2) I have no idea. I'm sure some highly motivated people with the right skill-set can rig up something.
3) Again... I have no idea but I think saving lives comes first. People will do the strangest and most seemingly irrational things when an emergency comes. They rush in to burning buildings to save pets or photo albums, stay in their home and watch flood water rise around them or use a garden hose to try and stop a forest fire. Logic rarely comes into it, but saving what is precious to them does... I don't think something re-building a pond at a later date would come in to the thinking.

 

[caters]

I thought that pregnant women might be at higher risk of miscarriage and preterm labor during an earthquake because the shaking might cause the baby to put enough pressure on the amniotic sac eventually causing the woman's water to break and that the water breaking might induce uterine contractions causing a miscarriage or labor depending on how long the woman has been pregnant. I mean, falling can induce labor in a similar way(water breaking due to pressure), especially if the woman lands on her stomach. The only difference here is that falling causes the pressure to be primarily external but an earthquake would cause primarily internal pressure assuming the pregnant woman is safe from falling.

 

[Efigenia]

few thoughts

I think you might want to read up a bit more about earthquakes. Earthquakes occur on fault lines, they don't create them.

The initial experience would be dust but more critically intense shaking which causes people and things (like furniture, equipment) to fall down and to shift around. Not only do you have rubble (which can injure/trap people) but if fires start (eg because gas lines break) they are difficult to put out if the water system (or fire suppression system) is compromised. Other utilities may fail too: air circulation and purification systems, water pumps and pipes, sewage, power, gas. Anything that relies on a conduit of some kind or a mechanical device with parts that need to stay aligned. It will be difficult to get around and to communicate. Aftershocks will continue to happen, causing additional damage, injury and fright.

Your doctor would have to triage - use his/her labour and supplies to save the most people. That means making hard decisions about who they can't save, and what can wait or be delegated. A micropreemie might be pretty low on the list, due to need for specialized equipment & intense care. In a post-disaster situation babies are quite vulnerable. They are very susceptible to illness, and much more likely to die from dehydration, fever, etc. than an adult. At 1+ accidents are a real danger especially if moms are busy and can't pay much attention. If moms don't get good nutrition, their milk will dry up. So I wouldn't say, after a disaster, that dust is their only problem!

Yes, there is probably a slightly increased risk of premature birth and miscarriage due to stress. And I'm not clear how every mom makes a sling - are they carrying the materials on them? Unless they normally carry babies in slings this seems unlikely. Do a search for baby wraps to see how moms usually carry babies. You will see that the position you describe is not the most common.

 

[Russ]

A google search on premature birth and earthquakes will answer your question for you on that issue.

IT appears that it does occur (in two ways), but not for the physical reasons of pressure you suggest, rather for pyscho-emotional reasons of stress reactions. However the data on immediate premature birth due to earthquakes is not large or robust.