More on Friday's Quake:
Last Update: Friday, November 26, 2004. 11:34pm (AEDT)
"At least 17 people have been killed and more than 130 injured after an earthquake hit a town in Indonesia's Papua province for the second time in nine months.
Terrified residents in the coastal town of Nabire have pitched tents outside their homes amid continuous aftershocks, badly needing more tents and medicine.
"A total of 11 bodies have been identified but there are six others which are still buried under rubble of destroyed buildings," said Commissioner Wempi Batlayeri, the town's deputy police chief.
The quake and smaller shocks had injured 133 people, 30 of them seriously and destroyed 328 homes and other buildings, Commissioner Batlayeri said.
"The current condition in Nabire is pitch black, there is no lighting. Almost every minute aftershocks can be felt," he said.
Residents set up camp outside their houses fearing further tremors while tents were pitched outside the town's main hospital to treat victims.
"We are still waiting for supplies from Biak town. The airport's runway is cracked in six places but Twin Otter planes can still land here," Commissioner Batlayeri said..." (End excerpt. Link to story follows.)
Another quake, same area as Friday's Ping.
Sunday November 28, 3:44 PM
"Hundreds of villagers were evacuated from an island in Papua New Guinea on Sunday as a volcano already blamed for the deaths of two people threatened another eruption, officials said.
Authorities planned to evacuate more than 9,000 people from Manam Island to hastily established care centers on the South Pacific country's mainland.
Luke Kalaua, an official with the Provincial Disaster Office, said a barge had carried 600 islanders on Sunday from Manam, where a volcano began erupting a month ago.
"There's not so much activity now but it is still spewing thick, black smoke," he said.
He said the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory had warned of rising activity that could trigger a major eruption soon.
A child and a woman are believed to have died from drinking ash-contaminated water, Kalaua said. Five other villagers were reportedly injured by the eruption, which left ash up to three meters (10 feet) deep in some places.
A surge in volcanic activity last week prompted authorities to raise the alert level, and the government pledged 1 million kina (US$400,000; €300,000) in assistance..."(End excerpt. Link to story follows)
Local authorities are evacuating "hundreds of people" from a local island in anticipation of a pending volcanic eruption. Because it's the same area, and there was an earlier 7.2 quake here on Friday with loss of life, I have put this thread into Breaking News and added the story here.
Ping.
Manam Volcano is the cause of the current evacuation:
"Manam is a basaltic stratovolcano 7.5 miles (12 km) north of Papua New Guinea. Its first known eruption was in 1616. Since then Manam has erupted at least 30 times. The volcano has been very active in the 20th century with 23 eruptions. Strombolian eruptions are most common.
Manam has been erupting since 1974, producing pyroclastic flows and lava flows. In October of 1994, a major explosive eruption at Manam sent a plume 6 miles (10 km) above the vent.
Incandescent projectiles were shot about a mile (1-2 km) above the crater. Although this most recent eruption has caused damaged there have been no fatalities. Photo by G.A. Taylor, August 1972. "
Photo courtesy of Jack Lockwood, U.S. Geological Survey.
Another big quake and now evacuations due to an active, rumbling volcano Ping.
I was watching a program the other nite about the 1985 Ruiz volcano, where 25,000 perished. It seems authorities wanted a specific prediction of eruption before evacuating the town. The scientists said that volcanic eruptions are extremely hard to predict. They would need something akin to an MRI of the volcano to see the magma movement in order to say when the volcano would erupt.
Here's an interesting link of the most deadly eruptions.
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicFacts/deadly_eruptions.html
Who cares?
There is some activity in the Adriatic as well. Lots of creaking and groaning, or maybe just better reporting.