SUMATRA QUAKE REVISED TO 9.0 MAG

usgs ^

[Brian Mosely]

Magnitude 9.0 - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2004 December 26 00:58:50 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A great earthquake occurred at 00:58:50 (UTC) on Sunday, December 26, 2004. The magnitude 9.0 event has been located OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude		9.0
Date-Time	Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 6:58:50 AM = local time at epicenter
Location	3.298°N, 95.779°E
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region		OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
Distances	250 km (155 miles) SSE of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia 320 km (200 miles) W of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia 1260 km (780 miles) SSW of BANGKOK, Thailand 1605 km (1000 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
	Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 9.2 km (5.7 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=157, Nph=157, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.35 sec, Gp= 29°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
	Event ID	usslav
Felt Reports	At least 3,000 people killed in Sri Lanka, 2,300 in India, 2,000 in Indonesia, 289 in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia, 8 in Somalia and 2 in Bangladesh by tsunamis. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Maldives and Cocos Island. At least 200 people killed, buildings destroyed or damaged in the Banda Aceh area, Sumatra. Felt widely in Sumatra. Also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. This is now the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.

Today's shallow, thrust-type earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra at the interface between the India and Burma plates. In this region, the Burma plate is characterized by significant strain partitioning due to oblique convergence of the India and Australia plates to the west and the Sunda and Eurasian plates to the east. Off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a northeastward direction at about 5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate. Preliminary locations of larger aftershocks following today's earthquake show that approximately 1000 km of the plate boundary slipped as a result of the earthquake. Aftershocks are distributed along much of the shallow plate boundary between northern Sumatra (approximately 3 degrees north) to near Andaman Island (at about 14 degrees north).

[prairiebreeze]

Yes, and these are early reports too. The stories will become darker as time passes I believe.

[Cvengr]

Diego Garcia is of concern, but also are all the shis at sea, both surface and subsurface.

We haven't heard much other than a large number of fishing vessels and some merchant marine craft being capsized.

Anybody find any news on US or foreign naval vassels or merchant marine ships in the region and how they managed the traveling waves?

Also curious if any satellite photos show obvious surface effects in the vicinity above the quake's epicenter.

[srm913]

IMHO, if the quake had occurred on land, it would not have been nearly as catastrophic. Had that been the case, the quake might have devastated Sumatra, but the tsunamis would have been more limited and might not have reached Sri Lanka, Somalia, India, and Thailand.
It's too bad it occurred just off the coast.

[Quix]

I assume there was more than enough warning to get them airborne either temporarily or for transfer.

[Dashing Dasher]

I lived through Loma Prieta - and can't imagine a 9.0.

We get pretty "matter of fact" out here about anything under 6.0 - but, the difference between a 6.0 and a 9.0 is... unfathomable, indeed.

[commonguymd]

Msnbc has a great online video called "caught in a tsunami".
Reporters taking video of the wave coming in and people running.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[Strategerist]

The US Navy really doesn't use any of the ports in the tsunami areas as a regular base; They use Singapore some but Singapore was apparenty unaffected.

If there were any US Navy ships in the area they were likely at sea and totally unaffected. A sub would basically be unaffected as well by a passing tsunami.

[momf]

I've tried to contact two acquaintances in Korea and keep getting an error message. Anyone else know someone they can email and see if they have heard anything?

[Strategerist]

There actually are quite a lot of earthquakes (by East Coast standards) in the area around Reading, Pennslyvania down to Philadelphia. Many of them are strong enough to be felt. You quite easily could have felt one and if you were motivated enough you could probably find "your" quake in an on-line catalog.

Were you up near Wilmington Delaware at the time?

[Dashing Dasher]

This is a great website to look at if you think you've had a tremor.

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recent/index.html

[Sloth]

I suppose if they had enough lead time from Sri Lanka, they could pile most people aboard planes and take off, but they better have a good place to land.

I would think you'd pile everyone onto boats & ships and head away from land.

[SierraWasp]

Didja ever notice these things seem to cut loose around a full moon and highest tides???

[Quix]

What was the prediction from those scientists who were getting pretty good at big quake prediction? A big one in So Calif within 6 months of Sept or some such???

[Ciexyz]

Here we were all holding our breath, hoping that "the terrorists" wouldn't unleash a Christmas surprise. And it was Mother Nature that delivered the surprise!

Prayers offered up for all affected areas.

[Cvengr]

Generally speaking, I suspect you are correct, however in the vicinity of the quake there might be some turbulent and change in water density issues that might effect ship bouyancy,...the old Bermuda Triangle hyposthesis of giant gas bubbles being released and destroying bouyancy of surface vessals. Likewise , close to shore, there might be some surf zone issues effecting naval opertions.

[Quix]

I assume our sub-seeking/wave radared satellites would give plenty of warning. Why not?

[Fishtalk]

Were you up near Wilmington Delaware at the time?

Unfortunately, no. I am in Sussex county at the very south of Delaware.

I do, however, live only eight miles from the ocean if that matters any.

[al baby]

just sent the Diego Garcia FAO and email. Lets cross our fingers


i did that this morning nothing yet

[al baby]

Art Bell?

[BIGLOOK]

Mauna Loa and Mt St Helens have been inflating. Japan has had big temblors recently. There's been worry over the volcano in the Canaries. Now huge quakes in the Indian Ocean, NZ, Tasman Sea and Sumatra. We've got tectonic plate shifts going on and silly humans worried over global warming.

Recall the alignment of the planets about two years ago? Geophysics and Astrophysics should talk.

BTW, this isn't anything new. News at 11!