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

[solitas]

The worst thing about drudge's page is that <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="240"> line he puts in there (take a look at the 'source' of his page) - it causes your page to automatically refresh after a short period of time, thereby ticking-up his hit counter each time. And then he has the [knots] to brag about how many 'hits' his site gets! Sheer balls, he's got!

[Quix]

You are wrong on both counts.

You have no clue about my motives, evidently.

And, I nothing more than speculated and that rather mildly about this quake.

You are welcome to take your personal attacks elsewhere.

[Quix]

A hyper-allergic freak-out reaction to anything remotely close to the ball park of Christian values and perspectives which you are hostile to

is not, per se,

my problem.

[null and void]

I would have voted for all the popups, but with Camino it dosen't happen much...

[Quix]

I suspect the leveling of the land is quite after the 1,000 years of peace. I don't think that's anywhere near our era.

imho.

[capitan_refugio]

There is a USGS graphic now posted at Drudge (titled M9.0 Andaman - Nicobar Islands Earthquake of 26 December 2004).

It is a map of the general vicinity and shows some of the main geological features. I believe Burma Plate is synonymous with Andaman Plate.

The area is an extremely complex quadruple junction of the Indian and Australian Plates, with the Burma (Andaman) and suda Plates.

There has been historic, major strike-slip activity (like that of the San Andreas Fault of California) through the center of the island of Sumatra; compressional subduction in the Sunda Trench and projected beneath the island arcs to the northeast; and rifting in the Andaman Sea. What a mess!

[Quix]

Help yourself.

Start whatever type of thread is allowed by Jim's good graces.

in the proper section, of course.

[capitan_refugio]

Another interesting thing I notice is that al most all of the aftershock activity is located to the north-northwest of the main shock. It looks like several hundred miles of the subduction zone are lit up with seismic activity.

[bd476]

From the USGS Earthquakes Hazard Site:

Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?

"We continue to be asked by many people throughout the world if earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant.

A partial explanation may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications.

In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more that 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite.

This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate earthquakes more rapidly and to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years.

The NEIC now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in the environment and natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes.

According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 18 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year. However, let's take a look at what has happened in the past 31 years, from 1969 through 2001.

Our records show that 1992 is the first time that we have reached or exceeded the long-term average number of major earthquakes since 1971. The long-term average for the number of earthquakes was exceeded in 1970, 1971, 1992, 1995, and 1996, but there was less than half the average number of events in 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1989. The number of events in 2001, is once again been below the long-term average."

The following is a list of major and great earthquakes during this period:

Number of Earthquakes Per Year

Year	Major Earthquakes	Great Earthquakes
1969	15	1
1970	20	0
1971	19	1
1972	15	0
1973	13	0
1974	14	0
1975	14	1
1976	15	2
1977	11	2
1978	16	1
1979	13	0
1980	13	1
1981	13	0
1982	10	1
1983	14	0
1984	08	0
1985	13	1
1986	05	1
1987	11	0
1988	08	0
1989	06	1
1990	18	0
1991	16	0
1992	13	0
1993	12	0
1994	11	2
1995	18	2
1996	14	1
1997	16	0
1998	11	1
1999	18	0
2000	14	1
2001	15	1

The number of Great earthquakes during this 33 year period was about at the level indicated by the long-term average, with 21 events in 33 years.

Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?

[Quix]

You are a piece of work.

My believes are very available to one and all on this forum and you know it.

You also know that folks hereon prefer to have religion--AND ESPECIALLY A CERTAIN FLAVOR OF CHRISTIANITY which they are rabidly allergic to--as absent from this thread as possible.

Yet you insist on tweaking noses about it. Quite incredible.

I don't find your question uncomfortable. I find it baiting, a setup and inappropriate in this context. If you took a vote on that issue, I'm confident you'd wholesale lose.

[Quix]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

[Baraonda]

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

It's not because Matt Sludge say so. It is because it is written in there somewhere, I think. I haven't got to that chapter yet, but I'm sure it's there. One can always ask Quix.

[null and void]

Nonetheless, I am unable to reconcile worshiping God through Jesus (Literally putting Jesus before God) with Thou shall have no gods before me.

Apparently you have no such problem. That's nice. For you.

[solitas]

IMO: quakes happen, fires happen, floods happen, landslides happen (except for Election 2004), wars happen, plagues happen, reality shows happen, and as long as mankind has been trying to interpret Scripture they've always been saying "oooh! thus-and-so points to the end of the world next Thursday!" and it ain't happened yet.

I think God's Plan for me doesn't include my wasting time and energy trying to determine if the latest happenings signal the beginning of "IT" (especially when He specifically tells me 'not to worry about the day or the hour') so I'm content enough just doing what else He has for me to do.

When the Day comes, well, that's all right - I'll be content to know that I've tried the best I could to knowingly do what He's wants of me. <shrug>

[Baraonda]

"Well said."

Thanks. I'm not well-versed with this stuff, but I try.

It is wanted so by Him that whatever He wants whatever He can, I think. Ergo ask no more. :)

[Quix]

IF you truly desire to be as close to God as possible, He will solve that problem. I'm saddened that you seem to be so lacking in your appreciation for the Isaiah and Psalms prophecies fulfilled so precisely by Jesus' earthly life.

AND, this should still be on another, different thread.

[null and void]

I'd like to think that the honest quest for truth suffices.

[Quix]

The honest part is critical.

So is the quest part--how much of a real earnest, heart felt quest is such on how many people's parts is a good question.

And THE TRUTH part is also critical--a lot of people give up when THE TRUTH becomes uncomfortable to their biases or comfort zones.

[bd476]

{Snip}

"...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..."

{Snip}

"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..."

{Snip}

"...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..."

[solitas]

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..."

I'm betting THAT will change in the near future. :)