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HOUGHTON -- Without warning, communities were shaken apart in last Saturday's massive earthquake in Chile, which destroyed homes and lives.  This, just a month after more than 200,000 people were killed in Haiti by an earthquake.

While it seems like the Upper Peninsula is far removed from the destruction, geologists at Michigan Tech saw it all on their seismograph, which recorded both earthquakes.

"This a a rare event, an earthquake of this size," said Associate Professor of Geology, Greg Waite.  "So, we're very curious about these large events."

Geologist Jose Palma is from Chile and was supposed to return to his native country last week.

"I'm still going on Monday," said Palma.  "I wish I was there, because I would like to help.  Also, I would like to research."

Other geologists at Michigan Tech hope to use their researh to help earthquake prone countries, like Chile and Haiti, prepare for future earthquakes.  One way would be to require better building codes.

Scientists can't predict exactly when earthquakes will hit, but they can guess when one might strike a certain area within three to five decades.

"The donor money that's coming in from other countries right now needs to go toward building better buildings now," said Geology Ph.D. student, John Lyons, "especially buildings like schools."

And while Michigan Tech doesn't send the data they collect from their seismographs to the U.S. Geological Survey Office, it's important to have seismographs around the world, collecting data to determine how big an earthquake is and what caused it.

"In this case, this event ruptured an area 300 miles long," Waite said.  "And you could only get that kind of information with lots of recording stations."