Earth Quake, 8.5 In Indian Ocean

[Annie]

Same area as before:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/wmsg

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1629Z 28 MAR 2005

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THERE IS NO TSUNAMI WARNING
OR WATCH IN EFFECT.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1610Z 28 MAR 2005
COORDINATES - 2.3 NORTH 97.1 EAST
LOCATION - NORTHERN SUMATERA INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 8.5

EVALUATION

THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC. NO TSUNAMI THREAT
EXISTS TO COASTLINES IN THE PACIFIC.

WARNING... THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A WIDELY
DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI IN THE OCEAN OR SEAS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE.
AUTHORITIES IN THOSE REGIONS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY
AND TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. THIS ACTION SHOULD INCLUDE EVACUATION
OF COASTS WITHIN A THOUSAND KILOMETERS OF THE EPICENTER AND CLOSE
MONITORING TO DETERMINE THE NEED FOR EVACUATION FURTHER AWAY.

THIS CENTER DOES NOT HAVE SEA LEVEL GAUGES OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC
SO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT OR MEASURE A TSUNAMI IF ONE WAS
GENERATED. AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE DANGER HAS PASSED IF NO
TSUNAMI WAVES ARE OBSERVED IN THE REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER
WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE BULLETINS
FOR ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

 

[onedomino]

Today's quake occurred within a few tens of miles of the 9.0 December 26, 2004 quake http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2004/eq_041226/ that caused the killer tsunami. The USGS rates today's quake at 8.2 http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_weax.html.

 

[Annie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...ml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/28/ixportaltop.html

Huge earthquake triggers tsunami warning
(Filed: 28/03/2005)

A tsunami warning has been issued after an earthquake registering at least 8.2 struck off the coast of Indonesia.

The new quake was off the coast of Sumatra, close to where an earthquake on Dec 26 triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing.

The latest quake had the potential to cause a "widely destructive tsunami" and authorities should take "immediate action," including evacuating coastlines within 600 miles of the epicentre, the Pacific tsunami warning centre said...

 

[onedomino]

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/general/richter.html
Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale [Richter], each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value.

Thus, the 12.26.04 quake had 8 times more amplitude and released about 25 times more energy than today's quake. Since it was so near to the the 12.26.04 quake site, will today's quake be considered an aftershock? Today's 8.2 quake is a very large. On average, there is only one 8.0+ quake in the world per year.

 

[no1tovote4]

I can only hope and send good wishes to those in the area. I hope they see no serious damage from this one. Since Earthquakes are measured on a scale where the power is measured exponentially the 8.2 is actually quite a bit smaller than the 9.whatever-it-was.

 

[Adam's Apple]

How much longer can they have these dangerous quakes on the other side of the world before there starts to be balancing quakes in this hemisphere? Any science people on the board who knows about these things? Seems to me there have been a lot of bad quakes in the Eastern Hemisphere in recent years with no counter-balancing jolts on this side to compensate. Does it work that way? I'm curious.

 

[5stringJeff]

How much longer can they have these dangerous quakes on the other side of the world before there starts to be balancing quakes in this hemisphere? Any science people on the board who knows about these things? Seems to me there have been a lot of bad quakes in the Eastern Hemisphere in recent years with no counter-balancing jolts on this side to compensate. Does it work that way? I'm curious.

I think it has more to do with the direction of the plates. As I understand it, the Indian plate is moving north, ramming into the Asian plate (causing the Himalayas to form). So the "counterbalance" would be the Asian plate moving somewhere, or possibly other plates to the south of the Indian plate moving north...? Not sure off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure it's not an east-west balancing act.

 

[onedomino]

The USGS has raised the estimated magnitude of todays quake to 8.7 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2005/usweax/. This was a huge quake. It occurred only a few tens of miles southeast of the killer 12.26.04 tsunami quake. If the 8.7 estimate stands up, then the 12.26.04 quake had 3 times more amplitude and released about 10 times more energy than today's quake.

 

[onedomino]

At the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics' office in Jakarta, a computer monitor displayed a graph of the 8.7-magnitude earthquake.

http://www.nytimes.com//

 

[onedomino]

March 30, 2005
Quake Damage Limited to Small Area; Hundreds Dead
By SETH MYDANS
International Herald Tribune

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/international/asia/30quake.html (probably requires registration)

MEDAN, Indonesia, March 29 - The damage from the earthquake that struck Monday night, one of the most powerful in a century, appears to be confined mostly to two tiny islands off the Indonesian coast, officials said Tuesday. But they said damage to the only runway there and poor visibility was slowing the delivery of aid and medical care.

Officials said 330 or more bodies had been found on the hardest hit island, Nias, and its neighbor, Simeulue, but government and relief agencies said the toll could climb to more than 1,000.

The islands' remoteness, a breakdown of electrical power and communications and an apparent lack of organization among local officials hampered the flow of reliable information.

The earthquake was measured at a magnitude of 8.7, substantially less than the shock on Dec. 26 that measured 9.0 and sent tsunami waves through the surrounding oceans, taking the lives of close to 270,000 people. Each whole-number increase in the magnitude of a quake indicates a tenfold increase in the amount of ground motion.

Tsunamis generated by the quake on Monday amounted to little more than ripples, perhaps generating waves up to several yards high that might have raked some isolated coasts near the quake's epicenter. But most of the deaths reported seemed to have been caused by the shock of the earthquake itself, rather than the waves.

Some reports indicated that tsunamis might have reached the inland side of Simeulue, and possibly parts of the Sumatra coast, according to Eric Geist, a geophysicist for the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.

He and other scientists also said there was clear evidence that a tightly focused tsunami burst southwest into the open waters of the southern Indian Ocean, passing well south of Sri Lanka and well to the west of Australia.

But there was little comparison to the monster waves spawned by the December quake. Scientists said there were a number of reasons forthe difference.

The latest quake, though enormous, appears to have been centered so deep under the seabed that it did not give a potent shove to the waters above. The quake also occurred beneath relatively shallow waters, reducing the volume of water disturbed, experts said.

Another limiting factor may have been that the epicenter was almost directly beneath Nias, which would have limited the potential piston-like impact on the sea and accounted for the island's violent shaking that caused heavy damage and hundreds of deaths.

Budi Atmaji Adiputro, a spokesman for Indonesia's Coordinating Agency for National Disaster Relief, said rescuers had found 330 bodies, according to The Associated Press, although the toll was expected to rise as more bodies were discovered.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla told El Shinta radio in Jakarta on Monday that the toll could rise as high as 2,000.

Aerial film of the islands showed damaged and collapsed homes but not the kind of devastation caused by the tsunami in December. On Indonesian television, residents were seen clustered by the sides of roads and carrying stretchers of the dead and injured on the backs of motorbikes.

Some dug in the rubble, apparently in search of people who had been trapped.

Plumes of white smoke filled the air, apparently from fires caused by the earthquake, making it difficult for aircraft to land. But the first aid and rescue aircraft began arriving Tuesday, and ferries were on their way with emergency supplies.

Hardest hit was the small city of Gunung Sitoli on Nias Island, where the municipal housing chief, R. Zebua, told Indonesian reporters that all electricity and communications had been lost. "About 95 percent of the city's infrastructure has been destroyed," he said.

A Catholic priest named Adi told the Indonesian news agency Detik that with electrical power gone, rescuers were working in the light of candles to help the injured. He said that as of Tuesday evening, the island had received little help from the military. The military and private aid agencies said they were preparing to send large stocks of supplies.

Some people here in Medan in northern Sumatra and elsewhere were fleeing shelters where they had lived since losing their homes in December, rushing in panic for higher ground. In Banda Aceh, just north of here, where the December tsunami leveled most buildings, local television showed streets choked with panicked people seeking shelter on higher ground or in the solid structures of mosques. On Nias Island, thousands of people were reported to be still taking shelter on higher ground.

Countries like India and Thailand had already begun to set up early warning systems, and sirens sounded in some places. But nations in the region have not succeeded so far in coordinating plans for early warning systems.

"Even though we don't have our systems ready yet, but we have the monitoring process that is quite good enough, but we will now be better by the end of this month," said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, speaking in English in an evident attempt to reassure potential tourists, who are vital to the nation's economy.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia put off a planned visit to Australia and said he would visit the damaged areas this week.

The United States promised new assistance in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid it pledged after the December tsunami.

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