Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

USGS Earthquake Hazards ^ | 2004 December 26 00:58:55 UTC

[bd476]

Magnitude 8.1 - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2004 December 26 00:58:55 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS

A great earthquake occurred at 00:58:55 (UTC) on Sunday, December 26, 2004. The magnitude 8.1 event has been located OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude	8.1
Date-Time	Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 00:58:55 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 6:58:55 AM = local time at epicenter
Location	3.400°N, 95.700°E
Depth	40 km (24.9 miles) set by location program
Region	OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
Distances	235 km (145 miles) S of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia 330 km (205 miles) W of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia 1620 km (1000 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia 3405 km (2120 miles) SE of NEW DELHI, Delhi, India
Location Uncertainty	Error estimate not available
Parameters	Nst=020, Nph=020, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.98 sec, Gp=101°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=1
Source	West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS
Event ID	at00000264

Location Maps: 10-degree NEIC Maps Did you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location. You can also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others. Historical Moment Tensor Solutions Seismic Hazard Map Historical Seismicity Theoretical P-Wave Travel Times Magnitude 7 and Greater Earthquakes This Year TsunamiBulletin Archive of newsworthy events

[Baraonda]

The bible says that in such istances of tidal waves, the floors will rise. It is written! But nobody knows the end of the retribulation except God, I think.

[Baraonda]

"And I was quite serious about your taking that religious question to one of my religious threads"

Hey, can I have my own religious thread too?

[null and void]

I see.

You can bring religion to an earthquake/disaster thread, and basically tell anyone who doesn't like it to Phi Phi off, you have a right to post religious screeds anywhere you please.

But when the response is a question you find uncomfortable, you demand it be taken elsewhere.

I'm not surprised. Disappointed yes. Surprised *sigh* no.

Perhaps you are unwilling to proclaim your faith where people will actually see it?

[solitas]

This could be the end of the world. It says so in the bible, i think. God is angry at us and is punishing us with these tidal waves and earthquakes.

Well, if these latest eqrthquakes and tidal waves are punishment 'cause God is angry, then what have all the previous ones been? In a snit? General crankiness? Goofing-around maybe? :D

[null and void]

The answer has already been found:

Nuts!

It hasn't been found by me.

Enlighten me.

[bd476]

REUTERS:

"Asian Tsunami Kills 12,600, Many More Homeless"
Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:06 PM ET

By Chamintha Thilakarathna

COLOMBO (Reuters) - "Soldiers searched for bodies in treetops, families wept over the dead lined up on beaches and rescuers scoured coral isles for missing tourists as Asia counted the cost on Monday of a tsunami that killed at least 12,600.

Idyllic palm-fringed beaches across southern Asia were transformed into scenes of death and devastation by the waves unleashed by the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years that struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Sunday.

"Death came from the sea," Satya Kumari, a construction worker living on the outskirts of the former French enclave of Pondicherry, India, told Reuters. "The waves just kept chasing us. It swept away all our huts. What did we do to deserve this?"

The wall of water up to 30 feet tall flattened houses, hurled fishing boats onto coastal roads, sent cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucked sunbathers and fishermen off beaches and out to sea.

"We are not well equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude because we have never known a disaster like this," Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who declared a national disaster and appealed for donor aid, said from holiday in Britain.

It was the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka in recorded history. Officials placed the death toll at 4,500 and said that figure could rise substantially as troops recovered bodies dragged out to sea or smashed on golden beaches.

Indonesian soldiers searched for bodies in tree tops and in the wreckage of homes smashed by the tsunami, triggered by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of northern Sumatra island killing at least 4,448 people there.

Many of the dead were children and elderly who drowned in waters churning with huge rocks, logs and the remains of homes.

"It smells so bad, fishy. The human bodies are mixed in with dead animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats," said marine colonel Buyung Lelana, head of an evacuation team in Lhokseumawe in Sumatra's Aceh province.

"There are still a lot of bodies under the wreckage of collapsed houses and in rivers and swamps that we have not yet evacuated. Most of them are children and their mothers," he said.

International aid agencies rushed staff, equipment and money to the region, warning that bodies rotting in the water were already beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.

The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was seeking 7.5 million Swiss francs ($6.5 million) for emergency aid funding.

BATTERED BY ROCKS

"Many of the dead bodies were found in houses. Their heads were cracked, probably battered by rocks," said Mustofa, mayor of Bireuen regency on the north coast of Sumatra.

Hundreds of thousands left homeless in Sri Lanka and fearing another devastating wave sheltered in temples and schools.

In the seaside town of Kalutara, holidaymakers staying at a seafront luxury hotel described a 8-foot wall of water crashing onto the coast.

"We were sitting by the water when people started shouting a wave was coming in," said visiting British car salesman Richard Freeman. "We left everything behind and ran inside."

The southern coastal town of Galle, a major industrial hub famed for its historic fort, was submerged by a 30-foot wave. Frightened residents spent the night on roofs.

Officials said more than 500,000 people were left homeless.

On India's southeast coast, thousands of villagers huddled inside emergency shelters, too scared to sleep in case of another tsunami. Up to 3,300 people have been reported dead in the area.

"I could see dead bodies all around and the devastation is of colossal proportions," Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa said after touring the worst hit areas of her state.

Rows and rows of dead bodies were lined up on the floor inside hospitals, in corridors and in the grounds of government buildings. Distraught mothers checked the bodies of young boys and girls looking for their missing children.

"I have been waiting for my husband and brother since yesterday," wept 38-year-old Narasamma as she stood on a beach near Mypadu, a fishing hamlet 375 miles south of Hyderabad, capital of southern Andhra Pradesh state.

"I am not sure they will come back as I can see wrecked boats floating in the water," she said. On the horizon, the wreckage of wooden fishing boats dotted the sea.

TOURIST ISLE DEVASTATED

The tourist islands and beaches of southern Thailand were directly in the path of the wave that had killed up to 400. On the main Patong tourist beach in Phuket, plastic chairs lay scattered, hotels and restaurants were wrecked and small speed boats had been rammed into buildings. "I was sitting on the first floor of a bar, not far from the beach, watching cricket," said Australian tourist, Stephen Dicks, 42. "And suddenly all these people came screaming from the beach.

"I looked around and saw a massive wall of water rushing down the street. It completely wiped out the ground floor of my bar ... It happened very fast, in a matter of minutes."

In Los Angeles, the head of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said U.S. officials who detected the undersea quake tried frantically to get a warning out about the tsunami.

But there was no official alert system in the region, said Charles McCreery, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's center in Honolulu.

"It took an hour and a half for the wave to get from the earthquake to Sri Lanka and an hour for it to get ... to the west coast of Thailand and Malaysia," he said.

"We tried to do what we could. We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world," he said.

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964 and the fourth-largest since 1900.

The tsunami was so powerful it smashed boats and flooded areas along the east African coast, 3,728 miles away.

In the Maldives, where thousands of foreign visitors were holidaying in the beach paradise, damage appeared to be limited.

With communications cut to remote areas, it was impossible to assess the full scale of the disaster, aid agencies said.

The Indian air force was trying to reach the remote Nicobar and Andaman archipelagos near the heart of the quake.

The United States said it would offer "all appropriate assistance." The European Union pledged 3 million euros ($4 million).

A tsunami, a Japanese word that translates as "harbor wave," is usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the earth's crust under or near the ocean.

It is not a single wave, but a series of waves that can travel across the ocean at speeds of more than 500 miles an hour. As the tsunami enters the shallows of coastlines in its path, its velocity slows but its height increases.

A tsunami that is just a few centimeters or meters high from trough to crest can rear up to heights of 30 to 50 meters as it hits the shore, striking with devastating force."

Asian Tsunami Kills 12,600, Many More Homeless

[ET(end tyranny)]

Revised from a initial 6.4 to 8.1 when reported on this thread and now up to a 9.0. Strategerist has been right all along about it.

I thought the quake south of Australia was 8.1 and that this one off Sumatra was 8.9, initially.

[bd476]

REUTERS:

"Indian Villagers Fear Another Deadly Tsunami"

Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:23 PM ET

By Y.P. Rajesh and Suresh Seshadri

PONDICHERRY/MADRAS, India (Reuters) - "Thousands of villagers huddled in emergency shelters on India's southeast coast overnight, too scared to sleep in case more tsunamis struck after a giant wave killed up to 3,300 people.

A tsunami triggered on Sunday by the biggest earthquake in 40 years wreaked havoc around the Indian Ocean, killing more than 12,600 people, swamping coastal villages and towns, destroying buildings and sweeping away boats and vehicles.

Weeping relatives began to abandon hope of seeing missing loved ones again as the hours passed with no word from hundreds of fishermen who were at sea in flimsy wooden boats when the wave reared up across the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning.

"Death came from the sea," Satya Kumari, a construction worker living on the outskirts of the former French enclave of Pondicherry, told Reuters. "The waves just kept chasing us. It swept away all our huts. What did we do to deserve this?"

Officials in Tamil Nadu, India's worst-affected state, reported almost 300 more deaths overnight, bringing the toll in that state alone to at least 2,000.

Officials in Andhra Pradesh said about 1,300 people were missing in the state, including many fishermen and 200 Hindu pilgrims who had gone for a holy dip on the beach.

"I have been waiting for my husband and brother since yesterday," wept 38-year-old Narasamma as she stood on a beach near Mypadu, a fishing hamlet 600 km south of Hyderabad, the state capital. The men went out to sea on Sunday morning.

"Around 40 people from my village have not come back from the sea. I am not sure they will come back as I can see wrecked boats floating in the water," she said.

Dozens of other women and children are also waiting for fathers, brothers and husbands nearby.

About 300 people were killed in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala states and 1,000 were feared dead in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands just off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, near the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake.

"I could see dead bodies all around and the devastation is of colossal proportions," Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa said after touring the worst-hit areas.

"The giant tidal wave has smashed through everything in sight. Houses have been flattened. Fishing boats have been thrown one over the other in a mangled heap. Buses, vans and auto-rickshaws have been smashed to smithereens."

HUNDREDS MISSING

A powerful aftershock measuring 6.0 on Richter scale struck the Andaman and Nicobar islands early on Monday.

"More aftershocks cannot be ruled out as they occur when an earthquake of such a huge magnitude takes place," an Indian weather office official said in New Delhi.

In Tamil Nadu, television showed rows and rows of dead bodies lined up on the floor inside hospitals, in corridors and in the grounds of government buildings.

Distraught mothers checked the bodies of young boys and girls looking for their missing children.

Survivors carried aluminum pots and pans and cloth bundles of their belongings they managed to retrieve from the waters and walked miles to the nearest government shelter for the night.

"We are too scared to sleep. What if the sea rises again and takes us away in our sleep?" asked N. Arasu, a vegetable hawker.

At least 100 people died in the Tamil Nadu capital, Madras. Police in the city of 10 million people closed roads leading to the seafront to prevent more casualties from any aftershocks.

A coast guard officer said the toll could have been even higher had the tsunami occurred during the night or at dawn.

"Thankfully, most of the fishermen would have returned to shore early in the morning. But we still have seven ships patrolling the eastern coast looking for survivors," he said.

"Our helicopters have rescued several dozen stranded people from rooftops and in low-lying areas."

At least 10 ships moored at Madras port, including bulk carriers, car transporters and container vessels, broke loose and were damaged, a senior shipping official said.

In the Andaman and Nicobars, India's easternmost territory, an air force base housing fighters and transport planes was badly damaged.

"At least 23 air force personnel and their family members are feared killed. A major part of the runway has been submerged," squadron leader Mahesh Upsani said in New Delhi.

Damage was still being assessed but some transport planes were able to use the unsubmerged part of the runway, he said.

Air force transports were flying food, tarpaulins and medicine to the islands." (Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer and Unni Krishnan in NEW DELHI)

Indian Villagers Fear Another Deadly Tsunami

[null and void]

Hey, Drudge is calling it a "Biblical Disaster" So I guess it must be...

[ET(end tyranny)]

Gin makes me think about sucking sap from the 60 foot pines trees in my back yard. No amount of tonic gets that off the tongue.

I only tried it once but I thought it tasted like a pine tree too.

[COEXERJ145]

Hey, Drudge is calling it a "Biblical Disaster" So I guess it must be...

If Drudge thought it would bring his site some hits, he'd call a car fire a "Biblical Disaster".

[berkeleybeej]

They need another category for 9+ imo. ~ commonguymd

Wellllll DUH!

ZOT! ~ null and void

You Win!

[bd476]

Initially this was reported as an 8.1 quake. It was revised by seismologists to 8.5, then to 8.9 and then again it was reviewed and recorded by seismologists to be a 9.0 magnitude quake.

Yes, you are correct that the quake South of New Zealand and Australia near the Macquerie Islands was an 8.1 magnitude quake.

[null and void]

That yew, thank yew. I'll be here all week. Try the veal...

[null and void]

Details!

[capitan_refugio]

It is probably moment magnitude

Usually that is shown as Mw

[solitas]

"...Aw, c'mon Murph NullAndVoid: it's Dan Quayle Drudge!..."

[null and void]

As God is my witness, I thought Quayle could fly...

[Baraonda]

"Well, if these latest eqrthquakes and tidal waves are punishment 'cause God is angry, then what have all the previous ones been? In a snit? General crankiness? Goofing-around maybe? :D"

Good question. You got me there.

Maybe he was just testing our resiliency, or belief? Or, maybe he was angry at us, I think. Or, maybe they're signs of things yet to come? How do I know the mind of God? If I knew I could start my own following and church and FR threads, fill my spiritual void and become rich and famous. I think I have it right, but am not sure as I'm still studying this stuff. It ain't easy, you know. But I think I'm on the road to righteousnes, I think.

[null and void]

How do I know the mind of God? If I knew I could start my own following and church and FR threads, fill my spiritual void and become rich and famous. I think I have it right, but am not sure as I'm still studying this stuff. It ain't easy, you know. But I think I'm on the road to righteousnes, I think.

Well said.