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Sun 26 Dec, 2004 10:04 am
Massive Quake, Tsunami Hit South Asia
At Least 7,000 Feared Dead in Six Countries as Tidal Waves Slam Coasts
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Dec. 26) - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia on Sunday, killing more than 13,000 people in six countries.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/
Up to 7,000 already... how absolutely horrible. When I first logged on this morning, it was something like 3,000, then was 3,800 when I last looked.
8.9 magnitude! Damn.
I think that number is just a guess. This was one of the most powerful quakes of the last 100 years and the numbers are going to get a lot worse.
damn! That's a huge earthquake. We're so spoiled in this country. It's hard to let myself get into what that must be like.
Modern day Chronology: world's deadliest earthquakes
Chronology: world's deadliest earthquakes
The quake that struck off Sumatra on December 26 was the strongest for 40 years and the fifth most powerful since 1900. This list shows the worst quakes that have struck around the world since early last century
Associated Press
Sunday December 26, 2004
December 26 2003: Southeastern Iran, Bam, magnitude 6.5; More than 41,000 killed.
May 21 2003: Northern Algeria, magnitude 6.8; Nearly 2,300 killed.
March 25 2002: Northern Afghanistan, magnitude 5.8; up to 1,000 killed.
January 26 2001: India, magnitude 7.9; at least 2,500 killed.
Estimates put death toll as high as 13,000.
September 21 1999: Taiwan, magnitude 7.6; 2,400 killed.
August 17 1999: Western Turkey, magnitude 7.4; 17,000 killed.
January 25 1999: Western Colombia, magnitude 6; 1,171 killed.
May 30 1998: Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, magnitude 6.9; as many as 5,000 killed.
January 17 1995: Kobe, Japan, magnitude 7.2; more than 6,000 killed.
September 30 1993: Latur, India, magnitude 6.0; as many as 10,000 killed.
June 21 1990: Northwest Iran, magnitude 7.3-7.7; 50,000 killed.
December 7 1988: Northwest Armenia, magnitude 6.9; 25,000 killed.
September 19 1985: Central Mexico, magnitude 8.1; more than 9,500 killed.
September 16 1978: Northeast Iran, magnitude 7.7; 25,000 killed.
July 28 1976: Tangshan, China; magnitude 7.8-8.2; 240,000 killed.
February 4 1976: Guatemala, magnitude 7.5; 22,778 killed.
February 29 1960: Southwest Atlantic coast in Morocco; magnitude 5.7; some 12,000 killed, town of Agadir destroyed.
December 26 1939: Erzincan province, Turkey, magnitude 7.9; 33,000 killed.
January 24 1939: Chillan, Chile, magnitude 8.3; 28,000 killed.
May 31 1935: Quetta, India, magnitude 7.5; 50,000 killed.
September 1 1923: Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan, magnitude 8.3; at least 140,000 killed.
This one measured 8.9 on the richter scale. When a serious quake is mentioned as 7.0 this was certainly a whopper. A relative visiting from Sweden told us friends had gone to Thailand along the coast which was heavily hit.
ABC News has a death toll of 7200 with deaths as far north as Bangladesh
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=360560
When we went to bed last night they had just broadcast news of the quake. Woke to the first reports of the tsunamis. Fund-raising in the Toronto Sri Lankan communities has already started.
link
Millions displaced.
Code:Worst affected were Sri Lanka where 4,890 were killed, India where officials reported up to 5,700 dead, northern Indonesia with 4,500 drowned and Thailand's southern tourist isles and beaches where as many as 839 lost their lives.
Quake Death Toll Tops 20,000
Lola wrote:damn! That's a huge earthquake. We're so spoiled in this country. It's hard to let myself get into what that must be like.
It is hard to conceive such devastation.
Deaths have been reported as far as Somalia on the East African Coast
I was living in L.A. (Pasadena) in 87 during the Whittier earthquake. It was said to be a 6.1 at the time. It was a vertical fault which is much more of a bumpy jolt. We were 9 miles from the epicenter. I understand the Richtor scale numbers are exponential. It's hard to imagine what a 9.0 earthquake must be like.
My reaction to the Whittier earthquake was to move immediately back to Texas.
Quote:The Richter Scale
M=1 to 3: Recorded on local seismographs, but generally not felt
M=3 to 4: Often felt, no damage
M=5: Felt widely, slight damage near epicentre
M=6: Damage to poorly constructed buildings and other structures within 10's km
M=7: "Major" earthquake, causes serious damage up to ~100 km (recent Taiwan, Turkey, Kobe, Japan, and California earthquakes).
M=8: "Great" earthquake, great destruction, loss of life over several 100 km (1906 San Francisco, 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands) .
M=9: Rare great earthquake, major damage over a large region over 1000 km (Chile 1960, Alaska 1964, and west coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700).
The magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of the amount of energy released. Each earthquake has a unique magnitude assigned to it. This is based on the amplitude of seismic waves measured at a number of seismograph sites, after being corrected for distance from the earthquake. Magnitude estimates often change by up to 0.2 units, as additional data are included in the estimate.
The Richter scale is logarithmic, that is an increase of 1 magnitude unit represents a factor of ten times in amplitude. The seismic waves of a magnitude 6 earthquake are 10 times greater in amplitude than those of a magnitude 5 earthquake. However, in terms of energy release, a magnitude 6 earthquake is about 31 times greater than a magnitude 5.
The intensity of an earthquake varies greatly according to distance from the earthquake, ground conditions, and other factors. The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is used to describe earthquake effects.
Gautam
I'm concerned we haven't heard from Gautam The Prince re whether his family and friends are safe in India.
BBB
Yeah, my roomate and her family were vacationing in thailand, and I haven't heard from them.
Will someone let me know if they hear anything about an American diplomat/ their family getting killed?
Does anyone else have missing person/s?
Thanks.
Try some of the
links here. I'm not sure how many of them are in the Thai language.
I followed some of the links...people have posted pictures of their loved ones who are missing
Missing people website
Visit this website to post information about missing people, in the Tsunami in Asia.
Go to
www.quakeinasia.com
Good info resource re tsunami
Anyone interested in reading accounts and status reports of the situation in the Indian Ocean without all the political baggage and finger-pointing will find these websites of interest.
http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/
This one is the "everything you wanted to know but didn't know where to ask" blogger page. Information on just about every aspect of the tsunami recovery effort and resources can be found here.
http://desimediabitch.blogspot.com/
Another blogger in the area with first hand accounts of survival and loss and how the people are coping.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4125619.stm
BBC filtered recounts of tsunami experience as well as people searching for info on relatives.
More to come:India's last active volcano erupts on Andamans
India's last active volcano erupts on Andamans
SIFY News, India
Thursday, 30 December , 2004, 16:07
Port Blair: India's last active volcano, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, has erupted in the aftermath of the huge earthquake that set off tsunamis killing thousands of people, official sources said on Thursday.
People have been evacuated from Barren Island since the eruption began on Tuesday night and there were no reports of injury.
Lava was flowing out of the rim of the crater which towers above the Indian Ocean some 500 metres (yards) away, the sources said.Killer wave hits Asia
Tourists used to visit by boat and the island has a police station.
The volcano, known as Barren 1, is located some 135 kilometres (80 miles)northeast of the capital Port Blair, and last erupted in 1996.
It runs about 150 fathoms deep under the sea and usually gives off smoke. M.M. Mukherjee of the Geological Survey of India told AFP the volcano presents little real danger.
"The risk is minimised because it is surrounded by the sea so if at all there is a lava flow it will roll off into the sea," he said.
The Andamans has reported a series of major aftershocks daily since Sunday's massive undersea quake off Sumatra.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are located near a zone of intense tectonic activity. A second volcano, called Narcondam and considered dormant, lies close to Barren Island, which also erupted in 1991 after more than a century of inactivity.
Animated details of the tsunami
Animated details of the tsunami
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4136289.stm
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