Posted on 07/18/2006 10:41:22 AM PDT by blam
Java tsunami death toll over 300
12:25 18 July 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Damian Carrington
The tsunami that struck the south coast of Java in Indonesia on Monday is now reported to have killed at least 300 people, with another 140 missing and over 50,000 displaced.
The earthquake that generated the wave struck at 1519 local time (0819 GMT), 245 kilometres south of Java's coast. As more seismological data has been collated, its magnitude has been upgraded from 7.2 to 7.7. The logarithmic scale used means this signifies a fivefold increase in energy from the previous estimate. The earthquake's depth has also been recalculated, from 45 kilometres to just 10 km.
Local witnesses say that two or three large waves arrived within about 30 minutes of the tremors being felt. The biggest wave was said to be 2 metres tall and smashed into resorts and coastal villages in the region around Pangandaran beach.
According to seismic data posted online by the US Geological Survey (USGS), there had been 20 aftershocks between magnitude 4.9 and 6.3 by 0700 GMT on Tuesday. However, despite reported local scares, no further tsunami waves are expected.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Very sad. This news seems to have been buried amongst all the headlines from the Middle East.
Ironically, more
people died from this wave than
still code in Java . . .
Yeah, there would be a media frenzy over it if the Lebanon-Israel stuff wasn't going on.
The saddest part of this is that Indonesia got its warning in time but was unable to pass it on to those who died.
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