Tidal Wave - Chevin

[Lid]

It was only a year ago on boxing day that 31,000 died in an Earthquake in Iran. Are we getting more earthquakes these days? I have always felt that underground nuclear testing may contribute to increased earthquake activity.

 

http://timelines.ws/subjects/Earthquakes.HTML

 

[ 27. December 2004, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: Lid ]

[Lid]

quote:

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I have notification of all earthquakes over 5.5 e-mailed to me within minutes of them happening and yesterday morning I got eleven e-mails within an hour telling me of quakes up to 8.5.

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Please can you tell us how to subscribe to this notification, chevin.

[Vagabond]

Glad to hear you are OK Chevin.

 

Having spent some time in the mangrove swamps of the Western Thailand coast, and having also visited the Andaman Islands, I can envisage how little warning the more isolated villages will have received.

 

Given the facts reported re wave-height and knowing how much low-lying coast lines the Eastern Indian Ocean, I will be surprised if the final death toll is much less than 50,000. Its really bad news.

 

Immediate aid to feed and shelter survivors is on its way, but getting it where its needed will take time - too much time.

 

Even for the survivors it is pretty dire. If their homes and businesses have been washed away, they will have to start from scratch again - insurance cover is not part of their life-style.

[argyll]

Just watching the Thai TV station (Deepam) Absolutely aweful scenes of devastation. Truckloads of bodies, mostly kids where a school appears to have been engulfed by water.

[chevin]

Lid:

Please can you tell us how to subscribe to this notification, chevin.

I think that you will find all you need from this address.

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Qua...akes/ussnbk.htm .

[chevin]

Vagabond:

Glad to hear you are OK Chevin.

 

I will be surprised if the final death toll is much less than 50,000. Its really bad news.

Thanks mate, and sadly, I have to agree with you on your sad forecast. When I heard of the quake and saw the location of the epicentre I predicted that it was likely to be in the region of 30,000. It is almost there already.

 

I saw film of a couple of the Maldives resorts today and I don't think there is much hope - if any - for anyone who was on them! I have spent a holiday on Angaga Atoll and all of the time I was there I was aware of the danger of just one wave..... The elevation of the island was just 6 feet which seems to be about the norm for a lot of them!

 

[ 28. December 2004, 02:18 AM: Message edited by: chevin ]

[chevin]

Talking of the 'quake, I am beginning to think that when they have got themselves sorted out, the scientists are going to tell us that this has been the biggest movement of earth they know of. I get the impression that they are trying so say something without saying it. They use the word massive and when they talk of dimensions they talk of a "front" 1,000kms long and a vertical movement of up to 20metres. I freely confess that I know sod all about earthquakes, but if they are saying what I think they are saying, the sea bed has lifted by around 60 feet over a length of 600 miles! If that is so, if the epicentre had been in the centre of England is is logical to assume that the whole of England would have been devastated. I have heard of some big 'quakes in my time, but even the one at Valdez in 1964 which was 9.6 never affected such a large area. It will be interesting to see what transpires.

[Cranfield]

I have also visited that area and some of the inhabited islands are no more than sand bars with a few trees.

Some of the people there would have stood no chance, even with a warning.

 

When deaths in excess of 22,000 are forecast, its just incomprehensible.

[peter mccue]

I've just seen on the BBC that only a year ago, the governments of the area decided not to install an early warning system due to cost & rarity of the event. If they had done so, it is estimated up to two thirds of the lives lost could have been saved.

 

How tragic, but in the light of the general poverty of the area compared to the West, perhaps understandable. What an horrendous twist of fate.

 

My sympathies to anyone caught up in this tragedy.

[Happy Dude]

just got this email from kenya, don't know how far from the epicentre malindi is, but it can't be less than 2,000 miles on the complete opposite side of the indian ocean

 

"Sundays fishing was also good, but completely eclipsed by the events unfolding after the underwater earth quake struck off the north coast of the Island of Sumatra. The effects started to be felt in Malindi at around mid day when the tide - which was coming in at the time - suddenly turned and went rapidly out, further out than a low spring tide, then turned and came back in very strongly with viscous currents going in every direction. Both Snark and SnowGoose were unable to pick up their moorings at 1.30 - 2 pm due to the unusually strong currents and tide - and so headed back out to sea where they stayed until 6 in the evening when it was again safe to pick up the moorings. During this period I was watching the extraordinary behavior of the sea from the fisheries. The tide would rush in and then right out again in the space of 10 mins or so, but with a lot of power, chucking small boats around like driftwood. The power of the water was both awesome and frightening, and the problem was that you never knew if the next rise in the tide was going to be bigger and more powerful than the last. Luckily the power was dissipating and getting less each time. By 6 pm the worst was over, and all the boats came back to their moorings, safe and sound."