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

[ForGod'sSake]

I'd be pretty worried about the Maldives...

I dont' know where the Maldives are, but at 22' above sea level anywhere in the area will likely see lots of water. Pray for 'em.

FGS

[Ken H]

Is there any way to spot a tsunami while it's still in open ocean, such satellite or sensors?

Assuming this is headed for Diego Garcia, how long before it hits?

[Strategerist]

Man, based on the quake location, Phuket should have been shielded somewhat from the tsunami by the main part of Sumatra.....wonder if NEIC got the location of the main shock a bit too far South.....

[Strategerist]

In the ocean a tsunami is only a ripple moving a bit below the speed of sound; the US has deployed buoys off Alaska anchored to the seabed that can detect one at sea but there's apparently no warning system set up for the Indian Ocean at all.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Just got this from the Phuket Gazette.

[edmond246]

The wave (from Sri Lanka) swept into the low-lying Maldive islands to the south. A hotel worker reached by telephone was too frightened to talk.
-CNN

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004122600410002577086&dt=20041226004100&w=RTR&coview=

[Slicksadick]

The phenomenon we call a tsunami is a series of waves of extremely long wavelength and period generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that displaces the water. Although tsunamis are often referred to as "tidal waves" by English-speaking people, they are not caused by the tides and are unrelated to them.        Tsunamis are primarily associated with earthquakes in oceanic and coastal regions. When an earthquake occurs, the energy travels outward in all directions from the source. This can be illustrated by throwing a pebble into a small, still pond. The pebble represents a meteorite or some other energy source, and the pond represents the ocean. The ripples that travel out in all directions from the focus, or the point where the pebble hit the water, represent the energy that creates a sea wave. Notice how the waves become larger as they reach shore, where the water is shallower.       Detecting tsunamis is a very difficult thing to do. When a wave begins in the deep ocean waters, it may only have a height of about twelve to twenty-three inches and look like nothing more than the gentle rise and fall of the sea surface. An example of how easy tsunamis are to overlook is the Sanriku tsunami, which struck Honshu, Japan, on June 15, 1896.       Fishermen twenty miles out to sea didn't notice the wave pass under their boats because it only had a height at the time of about fifteen inches. They were totally unprepared for the devastation that awaited them when they returned to the port of Sanriku. Twenty-eight thousand people were killed and 170 miles of coastline were destroyed by the wave that had passed under them.       Tsunamis in deep water can have a wavelength greater than 300 miles (500 kilometers) and a period of about an hour. This is very different from the normal California tube, which generally has a wavelength of about 300 feet (100 meters) and a period of about ten seconds. (The period of a wave is the time between two successive waves.)       Tsunamis are shallow-water waves, which means that the ratio between water depth and wavelength is very small. These shallow-water waves move at a speed equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8m/s/s) and the water depth. The deeper the water, the faster and shorter the wave is. For example, when the ocean is 20,000 feet deep, a tsunami travels at 550 miles per hour. At this speed, the wave can compete with a jet airplane, traveling across the ocean in less than a day.        Another important factor in considering tsunamis is the rate at which they lose energy. Because a wave loses energy at a rate inversely related to its wavelength, tsunamis can travel at high speeds for a long period of time and lose very little energy in the process.

[ForGod'sSake]

There's no conceivable way you'd get decent wave propagation from the location of this quake to Guam.

That'd be my guess also. Quite a few land masses in between that should break it up if nothing else.

FGS

[Strategerist]

Has to have hit Rangoon Burma by now if it has hit Sri Lanka and Phuket...reports so far have to be the tip of the iceberg.

[expatguy]

All that area is flooded now. Near Rockhard is flooded - that road that intersects with Bangla road.

That whole area is more than 200 meters from the beach.

[Central Scrutiniser]

PHUKET: Emergency response units have been scrambled after waters off Phuket surged onto land this morning, washing away homes on the east coast and causing damage at resorts all along the west coast.

The sea rose after tremors from an earthquake just before 7 am off Sumatra, Indonesia, that measured 8.1 on the Richter scale.

At 11 am, Phuket International Hospital confirmed that at least 10 people had been admitted for serious injuries, and that many more were expected to arrive.

At Bangkok Phuket Hospital, many other injured people had been received, though a total could not be provided.

The Gazette has received reports of deaths in Kalim, in Thalang, though that report has yet to be confirmed.

Kawee Sukunthamath, Chief of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), has told the Gazette that homes along the west coast are being evacuated as a precaution.

The move follows waters at Khao Khat, on the east coast, reaching up to about 300 meters inland, washing coastal homes and vehicles away. People were holding on to whatever they could to stop from being swept away.

In Patong, Gazette columnist Woody Leonard reported, “A giant wave went up the beach, at least as far up as Beach Rd … People were running from the beach as fast as they could. The beach is devastated … There were a lot of people on the beach, [and they were] swept away by the wave.”

The waters reached as far inland as the Club Andaman Resort.

K. Kawee said that the tremors were also felt in Phang Nga, Ranong, Krabi, Trang and Pattani. The Gazette received a report that the surge left a Royal Thai Navy ship at Tab Lamu naval base beached.


http://www.phuketgazette.com/news/index.asp?id=3871

[commonguymd]

It was reported on Drudge. link is broken now. I read through the article and the link is still on drudge (to the right)

[Central Scrutiniser]

That is where Club Andaman is, it probably went halfway up Soi Bangala, the place where I stay should be safe, but all the beach front businesses musta got nailed.

[Strategerist]

Cripes you could see this killing people on the east coast of Africa in a few hours.....

[edmond246]

More, and yes there is another earthquake, at least according to Yahoo. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041226/ap/d8774gj04.html

[null and void]

I suppose we are going to hear from the person that says major earthquakes ALWAYS occur during full moons, since we have a full moon tonite.

It's the full moon...

[COEXERJ145]

There are aftershocks way up north in the Andaman Islands though; that could have been someone getting a had location/magnitude for one of those.

Looks like the 8.5 quake has ruptured the fault line for hundreds of miles. If the theory of Plate Tectonics is correct, then there are multiple stress points along a single fault line and a powerful enough earthquake can cause each stress point to rupture in sequence creating a large earthquake swarm in the region.

[Pro-Bush]

Bump!

[Strategerist]

Like I said I really think it's just the Bangladeshis screwing up; it's either just the 8.5 Sumatra quake or one of the Andaman aftershocks, and because those quakes saturated their equipment they couldn't tell what was going on.

Neither NEIC or the Swiss Red Puma page have a quake in or near Bangladesh.

[edmond246]

lol, but they have the most updated equipment! /sarcasm