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).

[Collier]

lol........but no.

My sister-in-law, is naturally married to my brother.

Her brother is not related to me at all.

[ExSoldier]

Biblical. Very Biblical.

[JennysCool]

I'm very slow tonight.

Must be the eggnog.

[U S Army EOD]

It was HMX and RDX. HMX was basically a desensitized version of RDX and used to load HE artillery shells. RDX is much more sensitive and is used in the fuze train. HMX was the British equivalent of our TNT.

If Saddom had as much as they claim he did, he was fixing to go into a massive rearmament program.

[Collier]

I'm surprised, and happy, if my brain works half the time.
And I don't drink......

[U S Army EOD]

Great news.

[SierraWasp]

Didjew git that tidbit directly from Denis Richmond's moving lips, or from one of his harem members?

[ProudVet77]

It's the engineer in me :)

[FDNYRHEROES]

We leased it, but the Brits still administrate it. They are the local law enforcement authority.

[topher]

Do you think the Navy got all personnel off the island, on board ships to ride out the tsunami?

The good news is that they could do an emergency sortie of all ships and aircraft -- and get everybody they can onto those ships and aircraft.

I imagine the military police would have had their hands full telling people to get the lead out.

The million dollar question was how many ships in harbor and planes on the runway.

The ships just have to get to deep water -- the planes just have to jump to another base -- north.

That would explain the weather report -- N/A -- no one to man equipment. Diego Garcia may be a mess -- but if there was space, everyone could have gotten evacuated...

[FDNYRHEROES]

To: DollyCali
"I am guessing by it's shape DG is a former volcano "top" and so does NOT have the shallow waters to set up the "hit".. I did read earlier on another thread how the tidal waves are very regular wave like in the open sea."

The shape is more indicative of an atoll, which means it's a coral reef formation, not volcanic.


The coral atoll of Diego Garcia built up and formed atop a long ago sunken (submerged) dead volcano. The dead volcano base rises sharply from ocean depths. The coral formed in the shallower water atop the vocanic seamount.

[FDNYRHEROES]

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

Forget the top secret messages. Once you've experienced numerous spectacular sunsets while eating pizza and drinking a beer after a typical Diego day, you'll have a soft spot in your heart for the place for the rest of your life.

[Uncle Miltie]

Mauritius: Does anyone have news from there? My boss is on that East African Island....

[Cobra64]

Thank you from an ops point of view. I guess, a larger issue would be rounding up civilians. Certainly our guys would hustle within minutes and be on board. BTW... My perceptio is the USGS boys would have seen the reader measurements going 8-9... and have located the epicenter. Using simple trig, they could have tri-angulated the forecast in direction and velocity of affected areas. Then, the Navy would have immediate, if not concurrent calculus, and issued orders that they dee fit based upon our troops and civilians. Am I sort of right on this logical asessment?

Come back with your response. I am a cause, and effect, planner, thinker.

BTW, Merry Christmas. And if y'all don't like it, I'll have to shoot ya. (kidding). Series, If I don't hear from you by 01 Jan 2005, Have a Tee-rific New Year's .. Year.

[Quix]

ahhhh.

[Quix]

THANKS MUCH.

[Quix]

Ahhhh. I didn't know that detail. Thanks.

[Quix]

I could certainly believe that.

Cheers.

[though beer tastes like bad medicine, cough syrup or some such to me, usually]

[ProudVet77]

Just to confirm Ernest's post, I just heard back from someone I emailed on Diego Garcia. All is well. Not even a ripple.