Posted on 12/25/2004 9:15:48 PM PST by M. Espinola
Jakarta, Dec. 26. (AP): An earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale rocked large parts of Southeast Asia early today.
The quake reportedly caused dozens of small buildings to collapse and triggered tidal waves in northwestern Indonesia, witnesses and officials said.
Nine people were killed as a result of the undersea quake in Indonesia's northwestern province of Aceh, where most of the damage was reported, el-Shinta radio station quoted a witness as saying.
It was not possible to immediately confirm the reports.
Electricity and telephone networks in parts of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, were knocked out and dozens of shops and buildings collapsed, witnesses told el-Shinta.
"The ground was shaking for a long time," Yayan Zamzani told the station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."
The quake was also felt in neighboring Thailand and Malaysia. No major damage was reported in those two countries.
A tidal wave hit the Thai tourist resort island Phuket with waves as high as five meters 5 (16 feet) after the earthquake, Thailand's meteorology department said.
The U.S. Geological Survey's Web site recorded the magnitude 8.5 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, 1,620 kilometers (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta. It was centered 40 kilometers (25 miles) below the seabed, the Web site reported. The survey initially reported the quake as 8.1.
Residents in the towns of Lhokseumawe and Banda Aceh in the northwestern province of Aceh reported tidal waves had triggered flooding in coastal regions.
An Associated Press reporter in Lhokseumawe said several houses had been damaged and that water levels on main streets in the town had reached one-meter (three-feet) high. At least one house had been swept away, he said.
Hundreds of people were fleeing to higher ground, he said.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The quake came just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
Prayers sent for all those who are affected.
I'm in Singapore and felt nothing this morning!
"A tidal wave hit the Thai tourist resort island Phuket with waves as high as five meters 5 (16 feet) after the earthquake, Thailand's meteorology department said."
Once again I am struck by the irony in the difference between a native tongue and the english pronunction of that tongue relative to the events in the area.
Cowabunga!
Ahhh Phuket :)
Have to really worry about Diego Garcia; thousands of US military there and the island seems to be basically barely above sea level; maxium elevation is 22 feet and average elevation is 4 feet.
A natural disaster strikes a third world, predominately Muslim nation.
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, OF ALL PLACES???!!!
(This is me, not caring.)
Now that's just not right! LOL Here's hoping all are safe.
yeah....
definitely not fun for them...
The good thing (I guess) is that the areas closest to the quake are relatively un-built up, except for this island.
we will see I guess....
The whole Pacific Rim has been rumbling a lot this year. The current seismic map of the world shows 125 quakes in just the Pacific Rim area - but I don't know what the time period is for the quakes shown.
Living in San Diego, I'm not too thrilled with this upsurge of quakes in the Pacific Rim area.
Wouldn't Kwajalein be in the same situation?
I clearly don't know anything about the military. All the times I heard "Diego Garcia" mentioned in the news I thought it was an aircraft carrier.
Gee thanks. Im here in Southeast Asia.
Some of us care. Hope all is well.
There goes coffee prices up.
By LELY T. DJUHARI
Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- An extremely powerful earthquake rocked northern Indonesia Sunday, sparking massive tidal waves across the region - the apparent cause of 160 deaths in Sri Lanka. More than a dozen people were reported killed elsewhere, officials and witnesses said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude-8.5 quake - one capable of massive damage - struck off the coast of the island of Sumatra at 8 a.m. Sunday.
Massive waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing 160 people and displacing thousands of others, officials said.
The deaths occurred in the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee, which were inundated by waves as high as 20 feet, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official. No official immediately said what the cause of the waves were, but they occurred shortly after the earthquake in Indonesia. Witnesses told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station that nine people were killed in the northernmost province of Aceh, and several shops and small buildings had collapsed. But telephone and most communication links to the region were out and there was no immediate way to confirm the casualty and damage reports. "The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told the station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years." Four people died in Thailand in the southern tourist resort of Phuket, said Sorat Susaeng of the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry. The center also reported that people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with waves surging as high as 16 feet.
I mean, I can see getting worked up over 500 km of Gujarat being decimated.
This story however, is filed under my list of news items deemed "piddly crap, which I already knew."
I know it sounds callous, but it's the truth.
Kwajalein is in the Central Pacific, many thousands of miles and a lot of intervening land away from this earthquake.
Diego Garcia is fairly close (as tsunami go) and open to a tsunami from this quake.
LOL yeah...
its the short-timer ness that is infecting me right now....
At least 162 people have been killed after a huge earthquake rocked Indonesia, unleashing tidal waves and flash floods across Asia that swamped coastal areas and displaced thousands.
The quake, which seismologists said measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck in the Indian ocean south-west of Aceh province on Sumatra island and sparked panic across the region.
Sri Lanka's eastern and southern coastline was one of the worst hit areas, with rescuers saying at least 162 people had been killed by tidal waves that battered villages.
Sri Lankan relief official M.D. Rodrigo said workers found at least 150 bodies in the Muslim village of Muttur while another 10 were found in the town of Trincomalee which went under several feet of sea water.
"The casualties could be higher," Mr Rodrigo said.
He said the water level was going down leaving a massive trail of destruction. A large number of people were also believed to be missing.
Tsunamis in the southern Thailand resort of Phuket meanwhile left at least four foreign tourists missing after they were swept out to sea.
Indian officials also reported the deaths of two people who drowned after being swamped by a tidal wave in Agarpara in West Bengal state, about 25 kilometres from the capital city of Calcutta.
Unconfirmed radio reports said at least nine people had been killed in Indonesia.
Waves up to five metres high hit the coast of Aceh forcing hundreds to flee to higher ground.
In Aceh, a region currently closed off to foreign media and aid agencies due to a long-running separatist conflict, there were unconfirmed reports of casualties, with buildings including a mosque and a hotel collapsing.
A reporter from the private ElShinta radio said the earthquake caused substantial damage in provincial capital Banda Aceh, including the partial collapse of Kuala Tripa hotel and several shops as well as cracks on the road.
Reports differed on the the exact location and size of the quake.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Centre put the tremor at 8.5, which would make it one of the largest in history, off the west coast of Sumatra while the Strasbourg Observatory in France said the tremor hit 8.0 and was located north of the island.
Jakarta's Meteorology and Geophysics Office put the quake at 6.8 saying it was centred in the Indian Ocean, 149 kilometres south of Meulaboh, a town on the western coast of Aceh.
The office said there were reports of tsunamis, collapsed bridges and downed powerlines. They said telephone lines were also down, making communications with the region difficult.
First Lieutenant Suyitno of Aceh's south western Sigli district police said water began to rise about 30 minutes after the quake and added that hundreds of people residing near the coast or along rivers had evacuated.
Suyitno said there were no report of casualties yet and that the depth of the flood was around one metre.
Similar conditions were also reported in the coastal town of Lhokseumawe, in North Aceh district, 216 kilometres east of Banda Aceh.
The state Antara news agency said several shops under construction in the Beurawe area of Banda Aceh collapsed and search teams were searching for possible victims -- construction workers who might have been in the buildings.
The quake was also felt in the North Sumatra province capital of Medan, sparking panic among the population. But the meteorology office in Medan said that there were no reports of any damage or casualties.
The tremors were felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, 1,500 kilometres north of the epicentre, where buildings swayed but no serious damage was reported.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 18,000 islands, lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" noted for its volcanic and seismic activity, and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions.
Lying at the collision point of three tectonic plates results in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as pressure between the massive segments of the Earth's crust is released.
Last month a succession of powerful earthquakes struck Alor island in eastern Indonesia, killing 26 people.
When the after affect hits CA, Feinstein, Pelossi, and Boxer will blame Rummy and President Bush. Kyoto and all that. Rush should have fun with this if it still in the news; and when when Rush returns in a few days.
Stay safe. I'm still confused about your exact location as I didn't recognize the city name on the other thread.
Global Warming strikes again! Bush did it! Wouldn't have happened it Kerry had won!
Series, I hate Jaques-Strap Chirac; and Schroeder. If I were W, I would pull ALL of our troops out of Europe and let those bastards continue to swim in their military and economic cess-pool. "Fukc 'em."
Maybe I'll get a T-shirt with that logo.
BTW, I've worked in both of those countries, so it is not as if I have not discovered their cultures and business processes on a professional basis for over a year on a Seagrams project.
Losses could be incomprehensible if such a thing hit L.A., for example.
I hope losses are minimal just the same.
There is a substantial difference between a 8.0 and a 8.5 quake.
Place this in terms of how much a house costs. If a typical $100K house is compared to a $1 million dollar house, this might be synonomous with comparing a mag 5 quake to a mag 6 quake. The mag 8.0 quake would then be a $100 mil house compared to a half billion dollar house as in a mag 8.5 quake.
The $100k house is a significant investment, but 5000 more of them aren't comparable.
The seismicity was felt half way around the globe for over 26 minutes.
PING!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308458/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308458/posts
The only real tie is that I was born in Germany...
Although france and Germany are not quite as big of players on the world stage as we say they are, I think that showing how totally irrelevant both are (which is different than ignoring them of course) would get them worse than actually ignoring them...
The epicentral data suggests that this quake is likely related to subduction activity along the trench south of Sumatra. I'm going to check to see what the USGS is posting about this quake. They don;t get much bigger than this one, if M=8.5 is correct.
Unfortunately, the locals don't pronounce it the way it looks.
:)
I'm not a local there he he
A magnitude {{{7.3}}} - has just rocked the Nicobar Islands in the India Region
Even though the earthquake and aftershocks that took place in Western India were measurably smaller-I think they were a magnitude of 7.9-they affected an area that was-despite its reputation for industrialization-relatively speaking, extremely underdeveloped.
While I understand why people would be concerned about this terrible situation, I don't think they should attempt to portray it as the end of the world.
The amount of people killed in Sri Lanka by this fateful event would, most likely, not pale in comparison to the average number of deaths in a typical month of their nation's over two decade-long civil war.
From my standpoint, a government whose best solution to resolving the issue of terrorism is to appease the radical Hindu fundamentalists who started this conflict in the first place, should be of more concern to the avid news-reader than a fairly prosaic "act of God."
I may be in the minority here, but that's just how I feel.
...and on Christmas Day. Guess all these Christ hating freaks have a legitimate reasoln to be crapping their pants after all. :)
Good thing lots of them own laundries.
Buddy - stay safe if you've only got 16 days left on your tour (tag line). I've got a friend and neighbor (reservist in communications) who is shipping out in January - second tour in the mideast.
Ping
There is a lot heavy duty seismic activity taking place in the greater area as we type.
I am gonna...believe me.....
I dont know if I will have another tour out in the ME or not after this....
'cause that would totally suck!
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
Yes I can....
I was born to Americans abroad....my dad was stationed in Stuttgart after my mom got out of the Army and they got married....
I see.
So when are you forming your exploratory committee?
Tidal Wave Caused by Massive Earthquake Kills 160 in Sri Lanka
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