Posted on 12/25/2004 9:15:48 PM PST by M. Espinola
Jakarta, Dec. 26. (AP): An earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale rocked large parts of Southeast Asia early today.
The quake reportedly caused dozens of small buildings to collapse and triggered tidal waves in northwestern Indonesia, witnesses and officials said.
Nine people were killed as a result of the undersea quake in Indonesia's northwestern province of Aceh, where most of the damage was reported, el-Shinta radio station quoted a witness as saying.
It was not possible to immediately confirm the reports.
Electricity and telephone networks in parts of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, were knocked out and dozens of shops and buildings collapsed, witnesses told el-Shinta.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," Yayan Zamzani told the station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
The quake was also felt in neighboring Thailand and Malaysia. No major damage was reported in those two countries.
A tidal wave hit the Thai tourist resort island Phuket with waves as high as five meters 5 (16 feet) after the earthquake, Thailand's meteorology department said.
The U.S. Geological Survey's Web site recorded the magnitude 8.5 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, 1,620 kilometers (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta. It was centered 40 kilometers (25 miles) below the seabed, the Web site reported. The survey initially reported the quake as 8.1.
Residents in the towns of Lhokseumawe and Banda Aceh in the northwestern province of Aceh reported tidal waves had triggered flooding in coastal regions.
An Associated Press reporter in Lhokseumawe said several houses had been damaged and that water levels on main streets in the town had reached one-meter (three-feet) high. At least one house had been swept away, he said.
Hundreds of people were fleeing to higher ground, he said.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The quake came just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
My prayers to those affected.
M=8.9 would make it one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history.
Earthquakes are "equal opportunity" destroyers.
Sri Lanka's eastern and southern coastline was one of the worst hit areas, with rescuers saying at least 162 people had been killed by tidal waves that battered villages.
Sri Lankan relief official M D Rodrigo said workers found at least 150 bodies in the Muslim village of Muttur while another 10 were found in the town of Trincomalee which went under several feet of sea water.
"The casualties could be higher," Rodrigo said. He said water level was going down leaving a massive trail of destruction. A large number of people were also believed to be missing.
Tsunamis in the southern Thailand resort of Phuket meanwhile left at least four foreign tourists missing after they were swept out to sea.
Indian officials, meanwhile, also reported deaths after two people drowned when swamped by a tidal wave in Agarpara in West Bengal state, about 25km from the capital city of Calcutta,
Unconfirmed radio reports said at least nine people had been killed in Indonesia. Waves up to five metres high hit the coast of Aceh forcing hundreds to flee to higher ground.
In Aceh, a region currently closed off to foreign media and aid agencies due to a long-running separatist conflict, there were unconfirmed reports of casualties, with buildings including a mosque and a hotel collapsing.
A reporter from the private ElShinta radio said that the earthquake caused substantial damage in provincial capital Banda Aceh, including the partial collapse of Kuala Tripa hotel and several shops as well as cracks on the road.
Reports differed on the the exact location and size of the quake.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Centre put the tremor at 8.5 on the Richter scale, which would make it one of the largest in history, off the west coast of Sumatra while the Strasbourg Observatory in France said the tremor hit 8.0 and was located north of the island.
Jakarta's Meteorology and Geophysics Office put the quake at 6.8 saying it was centred in the Indian Ocean about 150km south of Meulaboh, a town on the western coast of Aceh.
The office said there were reports of tsunamis, collapsed bridges and downed powerlines. Telephone lines were also down, making communications with the region difficult.
First Lieutenant Suyitno of Aceh's southwestern Sigli district police, said that water began to rise some 30 minutes after the quake and added that hundreds of people residing near the coast or along rivers had been evacuated.
Suyitno said the depth of the flood was around one metre.
Similar conditions were also reported in the coastal town of Lhokseumawe, in North Aceh district, 216 kilometres east of Banda Aceh.
The state Antara news agency said that several shops under construction in the Beurawe area of Banda Aceh collapsed and search teams were searching for possible victims - construction workers who might have been in the buildings.
A witness also told the radio from Sigli the quake caused the dome of the main mosque there to collapse. The witness said there were no reports of any casualties.
The quake was also felt in the North Sumatra province capital of Medan, sparking panic among the population.
Indra Suwarta from the meteorology office in Medan said that there were no reports of any damage or casualties in Medan.
"Damage has been reported in Banda Aceh and also in Meulaboh, were electricity poles and bridges collapsed. But here has not been any report of casualties so far," Suwarta said.
The tremors were felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, about 1500km north of the epicentre, where buildings swayed but no serious damage was reported.
Guests of a high-rise hotel reported chandeliers swinging, according to a manager of the city's Conrad Hotel, while the Charoen Krung Pracha Rak Hospital evacuated all 400 of its patients as a precaution.
Buildings suffered minor damage in the southern Thai town of Hat Yai, about 800km from the epicentre.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 18,000 islands, lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" noted for its volcanic and seismic activity, and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions.
Lying at the collision point of three tectonic plates results in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as pressure between the massive segments of the Earth's crust is released.
Last month a succession of powerful earthquakes struck Alor island in eastern Indonesia, killing 26 people.
I thought the one in Alaska some years ago was rated a 9...
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Sumatra quake kills hundreds < December 26, 2004 - 6:14PM
Massive sea waves, apparently triggered by earthquakes in Southeast Asia, have crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka, killing 300 people and displacing 100,000 others.
In southern India, at least 18 people were killed and more than 200 fishermen were missing at sea. Unconfirmed television reports said 50 people were killed.
More than 94 people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province after the 8.5-magnitude earthquake.
And fourteen died and many are missing in southern Thai resorts, while police say seven people killed and two missing in tidal waves in northern Malaysia caused by Indonesian earthquake.
Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicentre of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region.
At least 10 powerful aftershocks were also reported in the province after the initial quake struck, a seismologist said.
On the northern coast of the province, at least 50 people were killed in Bireun district as a result of flooding. This number did not include a media report of at least nine other victims in other parts of northern Aceh.
In Sri Lanka, parts of the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee were inundated by waves as high as 6m, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official.
"The police station in Muttur is under water and the area is badly affected," police spokesman, Rienzie Perera said.
"It is a very tragic situation," he said, adding that some hospitals in the area were unable to treat the wounded. Perera said over 100,000 people have been affected.
About 300 people have been killed, including six soldiers, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. Most of the deaths occurred in Muttur, Trincomalee and the eastern city of Batticaloa. Deaths were also reported in the south.
In Colombo, the Seismological Department said that they believe the tidal waves were caused by earthquakes earlier Sunday in the Southeast Asia.
"We are not 100 per cent sure, but this is our initial finding," S. Premalal, a Seismological Department officer said.
A massive 8.5 temblor off the coast of Indonesia rocked large areas of Southeast Asia and was felt as far as southern India, which is near Sri Lanka.
Elsewhere, flash floods shut the port in the capital, Colombo, and displaced thousands of people in dozens of villages along the eastern and southern coasts, police and witnesses said.
"It was very scary when I saw the waves hitting the port," said R. Mohammed, who runs a transport business at the port. "We were ordered to get out with our trucks," he said.
He added the port has been temporarily closed and sea water has inundated the port building.
As I recall, the two earthquakes with the greatest energy release, in recorded history, are 1960 Chile and 1964 Anchorage (Good Friday). This data has been reworked several times, and I am no longer current on the literature. So, your observation could be right on the mark.
There is another thread going here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308458/posts
Thanks for the update.
There's millions of Christians in Indonesia - it's about 10% of the population and it's a pretty large population.
The Indonesians are getting better and better at this religious freedom thing too - the country is majority Moslem but is actually reasonably free in terms of worship - if there's an example of a Moslem nation that might really make it into the modern world, I think it's Indonesia.
Update
Some 300 were reported killed in Sri Lanka, 136 in India, 94 in Indonesia, 20 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise
The second largest earthquake of the 20th Century and the largest ever recorded in the northern hemisphere,occurred in Alaska on March 27, 1964 (3/27/64 05:36:14.0 p.m., local time; 3/28/64 03:36:14.0 GMT). The earthquake had a magnitude 9.2 (Moment Magnitude) and caused extensive damage in Alaska. Local tsunami waves triggered by this earthquake were extremely destructive in Prince William Sound and other areas of Alaska. A Pacific-wide tsunami was generated which was destructive in Western Canada, Oregon, California and the Hawaiian islands. It was recorded by tide gages throughout the Pacific. Even tide gauges in Cuba and Puerto Rico recorded sea level oscillations from that event. A Tsunami Warning was issued by the Tsunami Warning System in Honolulu for Hawaii and the West coast of United States and Canada. Regional Tsunami Warning Centers in Japan, Chile, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, issued warnings. Combined, the earthquake and tsunami took 125 lives (tsunami 110, earthquake 15), and caused about $311 million in property loss (in 1964 dollars).
magnitude 9.2 (Moment Magnitude)
Let's hope you are right!
If you want to read an account about a BIG tsunami, google "Scotch Cap lighthouse".
A scientist points to a seismograph reading from this morning's 8.9 earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia.
People walk through debris of their houses destroyed in tidal waves on the coastal areas in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Dec. 26th, 2004.
The aerial view of Marina beach after a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean hit the area in the southern Indian city of Madras December 26, 2004. At least 390 have been killed after a tsunami hit India's southern coast on Sunday, a federal cabinet minister and officials said. REUTERS/Babu
An aerial view of Marina beach after the tsunami
Locals and rescuers carry a girl from the Marina beach
A view from a helicopter of the damage caused by a tsunami in Phuket, about 862 km south of Bangkok, December 26th, 2004
A view of the Marina Beach littered with debris after tidal waves hit the coast in Madras, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
People look at a car and debris that was washed by tidal waves in Madras, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sunday, Dec. 26th, 2004.
A view from a helicopter of the damage caused by a tsunami in Phuket, about 862 km south of Bangkok, December 26th, 2004
Uprooted trees cover a tire on a street after a tidal wave hit Kata beach in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday December 26th, 2004.
People try to remove a damaged vehicle after a tsunami hit the Marina beach in the southern Indian city of Madras December 26th, 2004.
Marina beach
A TV grab shows people walking to safety after after a tsunami hit the southern Indian city of Madras December 26, 2004.
European tourists walk the beach of Kata assessing damages done by the tidal wave that hit Kata beach in Phuket, Thailand.
A view from a helicopter of the damage caused by a tsunami in Phuket, about 862 km(536 miles) south of Bangkok, December 26th, 2004.
Know what you mean. I am no fan of Islam by any means, those wishing earthquakes & massive tidal waves on any people just might backfire on us. Little kids are innocent no matter where they live.
I'll drink to that!
Make it a double :)
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