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).

[furball4paws]

Anybody hear what happened to Diego Garcia? Almost all Americans and a real low island directly in the path of the tsunami.

[U S Army EOD]

I'm sorry to inform you that relief money does not go "through" the UN. Have you ever heard the saying, "The buck stops here"! Well, they are flat serious about that at the UN.

[Lazamataz]

Anybody hear what happened to Diego Garcia? Almost all Americans and a real low island directly in the path of the tsunami.

No word, and no news -- in this case -- is bad news.

[Lazamataz]

9.0. Unfathomable.

Truly.

[MaryFromMichigan]

...This seems like one of those "unite all people cuz we're humans" moments.

Amen.

[Veto!]

Mt St Helens, while not associated with these quakes, appears ready to go.

Gee, thanks for mentioning that. It's not bad enough, 11,000 Asians to worry about.

[TruBluKentuckian]

"Anybody hear what happened to Diego Garcia? Almost all Americans and a real low island directly in the path of the tsunami."

I think at this time, with no news at all about Diego Garcia, we're going to have to take the "no news is good news" position.

[fhayek]

Year Location Magnitude Persons killed
1976 Tangshan, China 7.5 655,000
1927 Qinghai, China 7.7 200,000
1923 Tokyo, Japan 7.9 143,000
1908 Messina, Italy 6.9 110,000
1920 Northern China 8.3 100,000
1932 Gansu, China 7.6 70,000
1970 Peru 8.0 54,000
1990 Iran 7.9 50,000
1935 Quetta, Pakistan 8.1 30,000
1939 Erzincan, Turkey 7.7 30,000
Year Location Magnitude Persons killed
1960 Chile 9.3 22,000
1964 Alaska 9.2 130
1952 Kamchatka 9.0 0
1965 Aleutian Islands 8.7 0
1922 Chile 8.7 0
1957 Aleutian Islands 8.6 0
1950 Himalayan region 8.6 8,500
1906 Ecuador 8.6 500
1963 Kurile Islands 8.6 0
1923 Alaska 8.5 0

[GSlob]

"Imagine if had occured on land!"
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. But were it to happen in densely populated area like Western Europe...

[ProudVet77]

I keep checking google news and the most recent story about Diego Garcia is from 21 Dec. I suspect most of the media doesn't realize that Diego Garcia is a military base for us and the Brits.

[U S Army EOD]

Hadn't thought about that, but small islands can ride these things out better than large land masses because the displacement of the water or shock wave can work its way around them. When it hits the mainland, it has no way to go but up.

[missyme]

Maybe California next we are part of that "Ring of Fire"

who knows the current meteor showers, whacky weather, Global Warming

The "Day after Tomorrow seems like the Day of Today"

[freedumb2003]

I suspect this is worse because it is was in the ocean.

3 continents and many countries overa vast area have been affected.

A land quake would have been localized (although pretty bad if it had been a 3rd world main metropolitan area like what happened in Iran).

[U S Army EOD]

Would you be interested in some nice beach front property in Nebraska by any chance?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

A 9-point earthquake is beyond comprehension.

Almost 100 times stronger than the Northridge quake 10 years ago.

[humblegunner]

Anybody hear what happened to Diego Garcia?

He's fine, he'll have his tire shop open on Tuesday.

[nhoward14]

I assure you DoD knows what Deigo Garcia is. I have yet to see a DoD press release on the matter.

[jimbo123]

Diego Garcia (File Photo)

[Knitting A Conundrum]

ReliefWeb has some info about news, sit reports, and information about relief efforts.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf

click on the South Asia link

[BobS]

That was an underwater quickie. If St. Helens blows again, don't wash your truck fo a week or so.

Just make sure you get enough volcanic dust to fertilixe your little vegetable garden. I want some big fat juicy tomatoes the size of softballs. Two of those makes a meal.