The Great Wave- Sumatra Quake and tsunami of 2004

Sea surges kill thousands in Asia -tragedia"9,500 people have been killed" -- Yahoo News now says the death toll is nearing 12,000. This is an enormous tragedy.

Tsunamis hit south India; over 1,800 dead

Bodies line south India beaches; tsunami kills up to 3,000

Personal reports from the Asian disaster

Chittagong, Bangladesh has been hit by a 7.36 quake -- So, don't they say that when there's a big earthquake there's usually one on the opposite side of the globe? Because the closest big fault opposite this one seems to be the New Madrid...

IRIS Seismic Monitoring

Directory of Images - Everyday

Recent World Earthquake Activity

Seismo-Surfing the Internet

UPDATED: 8.9 Earthquake, 6300 dead, Aftershocks of 7.0, thousands missing (w/photos)

Phi Phi Island, Thailand : ocean swallows all 200 bungalows at sea level

Tidal Waves Kill More Than 2,200 in Asia

434 posted on 12/26/2004 7:23:23

Asian Tsunamis Surge Against East African Coast

UPDATE: More than 3,000 dead

Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3000 in Asia

Tidal Waves Kill More Than 2,200 in Asia

Maldives : Fate of tens of thousands of european tourists being censored

One example - http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11785866%255E1702,00.html

Thousands killed as tsunamis sweep across Indian Ocean

http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stories/asiapacific_stories_1272475.htm

(Yahoo/AP) Over 2,200 Dead So Far
Link http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041226/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake_15

Khaleej Times http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2004/December/theworld_December685.xml&section=theworld

Tidal Waves Kill More Than 700 in Asia -- 36 minutes ago JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years rocked northern Indonesia on Sunday and launched tidal waves that swamped villages and seaside resorts across Asia, killing more than 700 people in five countries.

Strong Quake, Tsunami Hit Southern Asia, 650 Killed
Reuters - 40 minutes ago
A huge earthquake hit southern Asia on Sunday, setting off a tsunami that drowned hundreds in Sri Lanka and India, sent Indonesians rushing to high ground and washed ...
Southeast Asia hit by earthquake, tsunamis Houston Chronicle
Over 500 dead as huge earthquake wreaks havoc across Asia Khaleej Times
Philippine Daily Inquirer - ABC News - Bloomberg - NEWS.com.au - all 297 related »

-- 10 earthquakes now of 5.8 or higher in the last 3.5 hours; latest about 7.5. --

Magnitude 8.5 - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Massive 8.5 quake rocks Southeast Asia, triggers tidal waves

Earthquake in Indonesia causes massive Tidal Waves

-- USGS updated again...to 8.9 now... --

1 posted on 12/26/2004 4:09:30 PM PST by backhoe

As requested- the usual inelegant fast grab of links, but it covers the best and worst of it.

2 posted on 12/26/2004 4:11:07 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

updated again to 9.0.

Imagine the power of 12 H bombs all going off at once.

3 posted on 12/26/2004 4:11:51 PM PST by xcamel (Deep Red, stuck in a "bleu" state.)

Bless you, backhoe. You do FreeRepublic proud!

4 posted on 12/26/2004 4:13:29 PM PST by mommadooo3

Thanks for this information - as I said last night, I may be sent as part of Australian government efforts to help assist in this, and FR is proving rather useful at helping me find information about how bad this actually is, so I can try and work out if I am likely to be sent or not.

This is looking bad enough now that I suspect I won't be going for a while. My job in such situations is to help restore educational infrastructure - reopening schools etc, finding supplies they need. This is pretty important - but if the disaster is bad enough (and this is looking like it is) it's a lower priority than getting other services working. I might wind up going in a few weeks, or months.

5 posted on 12/26/2004 4:18:06 PM PST by naturalman1975 (Sure, give peace a chance - but si vis pacem, para bellum.)

has anyone heard about Diego Garcia at all? I can't find out about anything....
-Proud To Be An American (on Nevergore's computer)

6 posted on 12/26/2004 4:18:48 PM PST by nevergore (“It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.”)

To: mommadooo3; naturalman1975; xcamel

Thanks for stopping by- here's a little more:

SUMATRA QUAKE REVISED TO 9.0 MAG

Here is a BBC site with first hand accounts that make for some pretty chilling reading

7 posted on 12/26/2004 4:20:04 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

Does anyone know how long a time elapses between the earthquake and the tsumanis hitting lang? I was a little surprised better advance warnings could not have been given, even if it's just a police officer in a truck with a bullhorn.

8 posted on 12/26/2004 4:21:09 PM PST by proxy_user

Does anyone know what the tide level was for the psunamis, and they velocities of which hit shore?

9 posted on 12/26/2004 4:21:40 PM PST by Cobra64 (Babes should wear Bullet Bras - www.BulletBras.net)

has anyone heard about Diego Garcia at all?

Follow the link at #7 and about halfway through are photos, maps & comments on DG. I had been wondering, myself.

10 posted on 12/26/2004 4:22:18 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

Do you know if those are current pictures or old ones?
-PTBAA (on Nevergore's computer)

11 posted on 12/26/2004 4:25:48 PM PST by nevergore (“It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.”)

To: xcamel; backhoe

Imagine the power of 12 H bombs all going off at once.

Actually, an 8.0 earthquake releases the equivalent energy of a 6 megaton hydrogen bomb. This was a 9.0 so it would release the energy equal to 60, 1 megaton hydrogen bombs.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

12 posted on 12/26/2004 4:27:47 PM PST by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)

To: proxy_user; Cobra64

Somewhere, among all those links, are some diagrams of the sea, land masses, wave action, and a little more- but dogged if I can remember which ones they were in-- you'll have to hunt. Look for a blue-green cross-section drawing of an island in the water.

13 posted on 12/26/2004 4:27:55 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

It's a function of distance. I believe Sri Lanka and India had 1 1/2 hours from the quake to the Tsunami impact. Phuket Thailand would have had the wave hit sooner.

The USGS tried to contact areas but since there was no formal warning network set up by India and Sri Lanka there was no organized way to get a warning out.

14 posted on 12/26/2004 4:28:11 PM PST by Strategerist

Do you know if those are current pictures or old ones?

It looked like an old stock photo to me- but I did not read the fine print!

15 posted on 12/26/2004 4:29:17 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

Tsunamis can travel across open ocean at up to 500 mph. You could be on a cruise ship out in the middle of the sea and have one go under you and never notice it, because it would only be a foot or two high. It's only when they hit shallow water inshore that they slow down and pile up to great height.

Considering that this one caused devastation 1500 miles away from the earthquake's epicenter, there would've been at least a three-hour time lag before it hit some places. But, I guess that not all earthquakes, even powerful ones, create tsunamis this devastating...any seismologists have an idea?

}:-)4

16 posted on 12/26/2004 4:30:57 PM PST by Moose4 ("Frrrrrrrrrp." --Livingston the Viking Kitty)

To: backhoe; DollyCali

Good work as usual backhoe. Ping Dolly

17 posted on 12/26/2004 4:33:57 PM PST by prairiebreeze (Jimmy Carter is a national disgrace.)

To: prairiebreeze

18 posted on 12/26/2004 4:34:51 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

Imagine the power of 12 H bombs all going off at once.

12? It's much more than that. A Magnitude 9 earthquake is 1,800 megatons.

The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was 50 megatons (and that was a one-off stunt by the Russians that wasn't a real weapon.) This quake was the power of 36 of those.

The thermonuclear warheads we have on our missles (minuteman and Trident) are 300 kilotons.

Thus, this quake was as powerful as about 54,000 warheads from American ICBMs. Or many times more powerful than every single nuclear weapon on the world going off at once.

19 posted on 12/26/2004 4:36:16 PM PST by Strategerist

20 posted on 12/26/2004 4:53:05 PM PST by backhoe (-30-)

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