Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 181-200201-220221-240 ... 301-316 next last
To: Bahbah

I am about 60 miles from New Madrid. Not good news for me either.:(


201 posted on 12/26/2004 5:36:14 PM PST by BARLF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies]

To: BIGLOOK

You mean HDX and RDX explosives?


202 posted on 12/26/2004 5:37:16 PM PST by prophetic ("I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."--Dan Rather)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: ProudVet77

I'd expect such a relationship, too.

Goodness, called "correct" on such a thread. Gwarsh. I'd better sit down. Oh, I am sitting down.

Wellll, be careful calling me correct. You must have a reputation you need to protect! LOL.


203 posted on 12/26/2004 5:37:38 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 185 | View Replies]

To: tubebender
With a 9.0 quake, a 7.0 might be an expected aftershock. I don't know how most ordinary construction stands up to that.

Fortunately, the epicenter is not onshore and that means a lot, but still...

204 posted on 12/26/2004 5:38:24 PM PST by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 196 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist

I remain unconvinced that you are a very good mind-reader or shrink regarding such people.

I think you are 10's of orders of magnitude better at assessing and discussing quakes.


205 posted on 12/26/2004 5:40:07 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 191 | View Replies]

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

Well I went and had a look. What a great site! I never knew such a thing existed.

Anyway, I did find out some interesting stuff. Allowing that I know nothing about earthquakes except they are fascinating.

A problem I have is I don't know the exact date I felt what I believe to have been a tremor because, well I didn't write it down in any sort of journal or anything. My memory's not completely gone but I would think the exact date is important.

I DO know it was a few days before the Alaskan earthquake.

So checking this site, I find the Alaskan earthquake was on 12/23/04. AND there was earthquake activity in an area known as the "Mid-Atlantic Ridge" on 12/20/04, which was a Monday and I *think* might have been the date I felt that tremor. Alas, the "epicenter" of this activity was somewhere near Brazil.

I note that this Mid-Atlantic Ridge does run up the Atlantic ocean and is not very far from Delaware.

I also noted that the seismic center in Virginia, not so very far from me, reported tremors on that date.

Thus, I'm going with it. I KNOW I felt the earth move that night. So did my toilet and so did my septic tank.

And how about the dog thing? We've had this dog for almost three years now and she's NEVER done that in the middle of the night. She was almost freaking out.

I have read that animals act weirdly before an earthquake but always pooh-poohed the notion because, how on earth would an animal sense such a thing?

I know it happened though. It was very quick but the sequence of events, to borrow from John Kerry, is SEARED into my mind, you should smile.

206 posted on 12/26/2004 5:40:09 PM PST by Fishtalk (Once a liberal and victim of all the spin. Ask me to interpret.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 170 | View Replies]

To: nhoward14

Thanks for that report. As usual, our Navy men and women will go off to help others in need.

Thank you, Lord!


207 posted on 12/26/2004 5:40:10 PM PST by Palladin (Proud to be a FReeper!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 193 | View Replies]

To: Quix

I thought it was around Seattle -- but that was last summer, I think the time may have passed. I do think I heard something about California, too, but you always hear earthquake predictions about California... I always got nervous (when we lived there) when it had been very cold and then we had an uncommonly warm spell (which is exactly how it was when Northridge was hit)...


208 posted on 12/26/2004 5:40:40 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 173 | View Replies]

To: nhoward14

THANKS MUCH.

When I was traffic checker at the comcen in Taipei during the Nam war, a top secret came across about us leasing Diego Garcia during the early negotiations with Britain. I've had a soft spot in my heart for the place ever since for some silly reason.


209 posted on 12/26/2004 5:41:29 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 192 | View Replies]

To: Quix
When I was traffic checker at the comcen in Taipei during the Nam war, a top secret came across about us leasing Diego Garcia during the early negotiations with Britain.

Sure hope it's been declassified since then.

210 posted on 12/26/2004 5:42:42 PM PST by SlowBoat407 (Couldn't you have stopped shooting at us and watched your baby grow instead?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 209 | View Replies]

To: Arizona Carolyn

No, this was a very specific prediction of a 7 or above quake I think South of Bakersfield and likely to be significantly East of the coast, if my memory is right.

If I'm responding to the right post?!


211 posted on 12/26/2004 5:44:37 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 208 | View Replies]

To: prairiebreeze
There was an 8.something a week or so ago around Australia and New Zealand. Now this 9.0 monster. I pray for all those who were touched by these twin disasters. they say bad things occur in threes. Let's all hope and pray that this is no part of that trend.
212 posted on 12/26/2004 5:45:27 PM PST by NCC-1701 (ISLAM IS A CULT, PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!! IT MUST BE ERADICATED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: SlowBoat407

Yeah!

Actually it didn't contain a lot of info and the key fact for classification seemed to be that we were interested in it at all.

Given that we have a base there, that issue has long been unclassified.


213 posted on 12/26/2004 5:45:51 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 210 | View Replies]

To: Fishtalk

Bookmark the site and if it happens again - you know where to go for more information.

As a red-stater living in a quaking blue state, I am also fascinated by quakes and like to see how many we can feel vs. how many happen.

I don't wake up for anything under 6.0 (it must be my tempur-pedic mattress) - but will feel a 5.X if I'm awake and moving around.


214 posted on 12/26/2004 5:45:52 PM PST by Dashing Dasher (Because I fly, I envy no (wo)man on earth. - Anon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 206 | View Replies]

To: Quix

? And the apology part for your misdirected outburst?


215 posted on 12/26/2004 5:46:00 PM PST by nuconvert (Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 190 | View Replies]

To: SlowBoat407

You may know . . . Most TS traffic seemed to have to do with golf schedules of admirals LOL.


216 posted on 12/26/2004 5:46:49 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 210 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert

I apologize for being lazy about not directing it more fittingly. Sorry for any and all offense.


217 posted on 12/26/2004 5:54:23 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 215 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert

BTW, I consider use of "hijacked" equally misdirected.


218 posted on 12/26/2004 5:55:43 PM PST by Quix (5having a form of godliness but denying its power. I TIM 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 215 | View Replies]

To: Quix

I never used that word either.

Thanks. Apology accepted.


219 posted on 12/26/2004 5:58:00 PM PST by nuconvert (Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 218 | View Replies]

To: Quix

Sounds like you are refering to zeta talk. That is as big a tinfoil site as you will ever find.


220 posted on 12/26/2004 5:58:57 PM PST by brooklin (gone pondering)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 149 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 181-200201-220221-240 ... 301-316 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson