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SUMATRA QUAKE REVISED TO 9.0 MAG
usgs ^

Posted on 12/26/2004 3:30:18 PM PST by 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.)

Small globe showing earthquake

Small map showing earthquake

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).



TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: earthquake; sumatra; sumatraquake
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To: Strategerist

"This won't necessarily lead to much of...anything.


Thanks for the panic quelling;)


181 posted on 12/26/2004 5:20:55 PM PST by Domestic Church (AMDG...)
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To: GSlob
Actually, as it was a shallow earthquake, were it to happen on dry land in an unpopulated area (Sahara desert, or Antarctics- as long as the ice sheets do not slide) there would be no tsunamis and very little loss of life, as the damage would be mostly local in nature.

Incredibly shallow by earthquake standards. But if this had happened on land, say in Los Angeles, the death toll would have been at least as high.

182 posted on 12/26/2004 5:20:59 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: Strategerist

Love the Seattle area. Loved ones there.

But I figure between the Juan de Fuca and all the volcanoes . . . it's likely to get interesting.


183 posted on 12/26/2004 5:22:37 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: Rebelbase
Good news.
184 posted on 12/26/2004 5:23:11 PM PST by commonguymd (the commonguy's corner bar blogspot - http://commonguyva.blogspot.com)
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To: Quix

I did some fact checking and you are correct. I can't find any reference to any British use of the base. The Island has a small detachment of Royal Navy and Royal Marines for administrative purposes but nothing else. I would be surprised though if Royal Navy ships did not make a port of call there. I know we used Portsmouth in England when I was on a DE/FF. They ran the base, we just stopped to R&R for a few days and to get ships stores.


185 posted on 12/26/2004 5:23:34 PM PST by ProudVet77 (MERRY CHRISTMAS, damn it!)
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To: U S Army EOD

A big quakes always does. Not by very much, but detectable and measurable. Newton's Laws of Motion apply to planets as well as smaller bodies. . .


186 posted on 12/26/2004 5:24:39 PM PST by Salgak (don't mind me: the orbital mind control lasers are making me write this. . .)
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To: ProudVet77

Thanks.


187 posted on 12/26/2004 5:26:14 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: dogbyte12

Prayers going up for all our pople on Diego Garcia.

I have a bad feeling about that place.

Hope I'm wrong.


188 posted on 12/26/2004 5:26:45 PM PST by Palladin (Proud to be a FReeper!)
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To: Bahbah

I don't even recall when or where I read it.

I'm not that concerned about it at all. Just curious.


189 posted on 12/26/2004 5:27:05 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: nuconvert

Good.


190 posted on 12/26/2004 5:27:45 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: BIGLOOK

Overall the number of M 7+ quakes this year is still below average, and it would still take quite a lot of them in the last 5 days of the year just to reach average.

And if you look at, say, the Smithsonian Volcanism site, worldwide, there's about as much volcanic activity as one would expect.

Mauna Loa erupts a lot and it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if it erupts again.

And Mt. St. Helens, when all is said and done, is just one volcano. Seems to count for about 100 volcanoes because it happens to be in the lower 48 states, but it's fairly quietly still dome-building.

The basic point is lots of quakes and lots of volcanoes..including catastrophic ones...are....normal.

Especially if you take a long term geologic view. What really leads to a lot of the popularity of apocalyptics is people desperately trying to convince themselves that "normal" is no acitivity, no catastrophes, no chance of suddenly dying for no aparent reason, and everything else is "abnormal."


191 posted on 12/26/2004 5:27:48 PM PST by Strategerist
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To: Darnright

Good news!

Pentagon Duty Officer Cheryl Irwin told FOX News that the National Military Command Center has received no reports of any damage to the Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility, off the southern coast of India. The Navy is considering whether and what kind of aid to offer to local governments in the region, said Navy Press Duty Officer Lt. Pauline Pimetel.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142566,00.html


192 posted on 12/26/2004 5:29:02 PM PST by nhoward14 (Freedom costs a buck-o-five.)
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To: Palladin

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142566,00.html

Pentagon Duty Officer Cheryl Irwin told FOX News that the National Military Command Center has received no reports of any damage to the Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility, off the southern coast of India. The Navy is considering whether and what kind of aid to offer to local governments in the region, said Navy Press Duty Officer Lt. Pauline Pimetel.


193 posted on 12/26/2004 5:30:52 PM PST by nhoward14 (Freedom costs a buck-o-five.)
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To: Cvengr; All

Unless a sub was near an undersea cliff wall near a quake, how would a big quake hazard a sub?


194 posted on 12/26/2004 5:31:10 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: nhoward14; Peach; DollyCali

that's good news


195 posted on 12/26/2004 5:31:27 PM PST by prairiebreeze (Jimmy Carter is a national disgrace.)
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To: Dog Gone; SierraWasp

The 5 PM news on KTVU out of Oakland said this quake shook for 5 minutes. That would do huge damage to most populated areas...


196 posted on 12/26/2004 5:31:34 PM PST by tubebender (If I had know I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself...)
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To: Dashing Dasher

Lived through lots of 5's and a few 6's in Taipei. Thankfully the epicenters were quite some distance.

Still a bit of a rude wakeup.


197 posted on 12/26/2004 5:32:14 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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To: SierraWasp; Lazamataz; Dog Gone; Grampa Dave; snopercod; Carry_Okie; tubebender; hedgetrimmer; ...

The Loony Lefties are blaming Kyoto.

It's Bush's fault, indeed.


198 posted on 12/26/2004 5:34:15 PM PST by Dashing Dasher (Because I fly, I envy no (wo)man on earth. - Anon)
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To: nhoward14

When I was on Shemya they had a contingency plan for every contingency, including a tsunami. I thought is was mildly amusing until I gave it a couple seconds thought. I am sure that Diego Garcia has a tsunami plan, exactly how effective it will prove to be remains to be seen.


199 posted on 12/26/2004 5:35:00 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Uday and Qusay are ead-day.)
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To: al baby

I virtually never listen to Art Bell contrary to public perceptions. Pretty close to certain it wasn't him or his website.


200 posted on 12/26/2004 5:35:01 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
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