Massive earthquake in Asia

MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:25 pm

More than 10,000 people have been killed across southern Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years. The 8.9 magnitude quake struck under the sea near Aceh in north Indonesia, generating a wall of water that sped across thousands of kilometres of sea.

More than 4,100 died in Indonesia, 3,500 in Sri Lanka and 2,000 in India.

Casualty figures are rising over a wide area, including resorts in Sri Lanka and Thailand packed with holidaymakers.

Exact numbers of people killed, injured or missing in the countries hit, are impossible to confirm.

Hundreds are still thought to be missing from coastal regions and, in Sri Lanka alone, officials say more than a million people have been forced from their homes.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a national disaster and the military has been deployed to help rescue efforts.

Hundreds of fishermen are missing off India's southern coast, and there are reports of scores of bodies being washed up on beaches.

Night has now fallen across the region.

In Indonesia, communications remain difficult, particularly to the strife-torn region of Aceh where the main quake was followed by nine aftershocks. Reports speak of bodies being recovered from trees.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4125481.stm

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:55 pm

Woah that's crazy. I was actually reading an article a while back that Toronto could get an earth quake in the near future because of ground activity nearby. Earth quakes are probably the worse since you simple can't go anywhere other then inside a flying vehicle and there's no way there's enough planes and helicopters for a whole continent at once.

At least with a flood you can go on high land, with a huricane you can go in a basement/shelter etc...

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:14 pm

Counts up to 33,000 today. Absolutely crazy. What's more crazy is the fact that it took the waves several hours to travel across the Indian Ocean to places like Sri Lanka (traveling over 500 mph!) and still there was no warning whatsoever.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:20 pm

Woah that's insane. It must be total chaos there right now.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:19 pm

Found this rather interesting....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/973889.cms

Quake rattled earth's orbitAdd to Clippings

AGENCIES[ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2004 09:58:37 PM ]
LOS ANGELES/AHMEDABAD: The earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists have said.

The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 km southeast of Sumatra island on Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 metres, according to one expert.

"That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut said on Monday.

"Based on seismic modelling, some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 metres. That is a lot of slip."

The northwestern tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the southwest by around 36 metres, Hudnut said. In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said.

"We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," he said.

However, Stuart Sipkin, of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely that the islands off Sumatra had risen higher out of the sea than they had moved laterally.

"In this case, the Indian plate dived below the Burma plate, causing uplift, so most of the motion to the islands would have been vertical, not horizontal."

JG Negi, an eminent seismologist who was earlier associated with the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, tends to agree with Sipkin. "The shift would be more vertical than horizontal and would be in the range of 10 to 20 metres," he says.

Negi says such wobbling was expected as an earthquake of such magnitude would "change the natural oscillations of the earth".

These oscillations, he said, change even during the Monsoon when very large water bodies are formed. "The earth is not a steady ball and wobbling can happen during change in the movement of inertia when the mass starts moving differently with respect to the centre of the earth," he said.

In this case, he said, it was only natural that the oscillations changed with an earthquake of such great magnitude. What was more important, however, was the "thrust faulting" caused by the rift almost 1200 km long and 10 meters wide caused on the sea-bed off Sumatra. This thrust faulting would force a shifting in the islands in the vicinity.

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:08 pm

Yeah, I read that yesterday as well.

This thing is crazy, makes me glad I don't live in an area that this is a real issue. So many people have and will die from this

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:21 pm

Yeah I think they're at 50 something thousand now, at least that's what my mom said when she came home from work. They were estimating 45,000 but looks like it went over. That's like the entire population of my city gone in a matter of minutes.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:56 am

60,000

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...hub=CTVNewsAt11

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:54 am

71,000!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/2...uake/index.html

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:41 am

My God. I checked an hour ago, 71,000. Now I just checked again...

Over 80,000 people reported dead!

I cannot imagine what has taken place over there. I heard this guy on NPR yesterday on the beach on his cell phone, and he was describing the scene and all he kept saying was...

"Bodies... There are bodies everywhere. They are covering the beach."

Eventually he said he could not stand to look any longer and that he was now walking away from the beach, but he didn't know where he was going cause the motel he was staying in what completely gone along with all of his belongings.

It's absolutely mind-blowing.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:36 pm

Man that's terrible. I can't imagine either what it must be like. This is certainly something that will make the history books in terms of nature disasters.

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:39 pm

Estimated over 100,000 now, 1/3 of the bodies being children. That's right, dead bodies littering the beach, everywhere. Everytime I see footage of this disaster, just of the power of these tsunami's coming in over the shore, my heart drops and I feel very insecure suddenly. It hurts thinking of how many lives have been extinguished in this week.

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:52 pm

The really sad part is that we probably won't even be effected by this in the least. Other than the amount we let the news itself effect us. We'll just continue living our daily life's as normal. The only difference will be that we know there are now over 100,000 less people in the world.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:54 pm

So true. And it won't affect stuff like economy and what not either so people in general won't have a reason to worry about it which is really sad. If you take the world trade center for example, even if it had been a natural disaster, it would of been considered worse because of the economy being affected. It's really sad how most people look at things like this in most part but it's just how we as humans are.

I just count myself lucky every day that I live here where stuff like that does not happen, but perhaps we take it for granted when we complain that it's too cold or too hot or too much rain etc...

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:22 am

Another day of watching the number climb.

What are they at now? 114,000? That's what I heard this morning.

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:26 am

Oh, nope just checked.

116,000.

What's really depressing is looking back at the original article posted here.

"More than 10,000 people have been killed across southern Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years."

Don't we wish.

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:36 am

shenbaw wrote: Oh, nope just checked.

116,000.

What's really depressing is looking back at the original article posted here.

"More than 10,000 people have been killed across southern Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years."

Don't we wish.

I was just going to post an update.
114,000 by this account

And yes shenbaw, you are correct, that is sad. Almost 80,000 in Indonesia alone!

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:46 pm

Wow I just checked google and yep, 120,000.

I was thinking the same yesterday, I was looking at an article that said it may reach up to 45,000 and I was thinking of how much people that is... but now they're at 120,00.

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 5:44 pm

135,000 today

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:02 pm

Before....

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:03 pm

After...

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Bookworm · Post by **Bookworm** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 10:57 pm

That after picture sent a chill down my spine.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 11:23 pm

Yeah freaky. There's another one but I'm warning everyone it's graphic if you don't want to see dead people dont click to enlarge.

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manadren · Post by **manadren** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 11:31 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: Yeah freaky. There's another one but I'm warning everyone it's graphic if you don't want to see dead people dont click to enlarge.

I hope that was a mannequin factory

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:35 am

Very sad, but thanks red.

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