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5th largest earthquaake since 1900
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| Jackson |
A huge earthquake has hit southern Asia, setting off a tsunami that has drowned hundreds in Sri Lanka and India, sent Indonesians rushing to high ground and washed away bathers on the Thai tourist island of Phuket.
The earthquake of magnitude 8.5 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey first struck at 7:59 a.m on Sunday (12:59 a.m. British time) off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.
A wall of water up to 10 metres (30 feet) high set off by the tremor swept into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and along the southern Thai tourist island of Phuket, leaving at least 650 people feared dead, officials said.
scary thing is that there was no warning at all :nervous: |
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| wwu.punisher |
Holy ... 8.5 is insane.
I remember the near-7 that hit Washington a few years back. I thought THAT was nuts. |
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| enferno |
proof?
and when was this? |
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| wwu.punisher |
| quote: | Originally posted by enferno
proof?
and when was this? |
Check the news.
It's on like every ing channel. |
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| trunks1022 |
geez, this is sick...
more details here on msnbc.com
JAKARTA, Indonesia - One of the world’s most powerful earthquakes in years rocked northern Indonesia on Sunday and launched tidal waves that swamped villages and seaside resorts across Asia, killing more than 550 people in five countries.
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Some 300 were reported killed in Sri Lanka, 136 in India, 94 in Indonesia, 20 in Thailand and seven in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude-8.9 quake — one capable of massive damage — struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra at 8 a.m. Sunday. The USGS earlier said the quake was magnitude-8.5.
Soon after it hit, immense waves or tsunamis crashed into several countries, and aftershocks in the magnitude-7 range were seen, the USGS said, raising the possibility of a catastrophic regional death toll.
Unprecedented
Stunned Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called the tsunamis unprecedented.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before,” he said.
Waves crashed into coastal villages over a wide area of Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake’s epicenter — killing some 300 people and displacing thousands of others, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake.
Parts of the northeastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee were inundated by waves as high as 20 feet, said D. Rodrigo, a Muttur district official.
“The police station in Muttur is under water and the area is badly affected,” police spokesman Rienzie Perera said. “It is a very tragic situation.”
He said over 100,000 people have been affected in Sri Lanka.
At least 136 people were killed in India, and hundreds of fishermen were missing at sea, officials said.
The biggest toll was reported from Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, whose beaches turned into virtual open mortuaries with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. At least 100 bodies were found on various beaches in Madras, said R. Natraj, the city police chief.
Aftershocks expected
Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst with the USGS, said large tidal waves frequently follow quakes like the one seen in Indonesia, noting that a powerful quake in Alaska four decades ago caused waves that killed people as far away as Japan.
He told The Associated Press that aftershocks are another concern. “We do expect large aftershocks after a large earthquake like this.”
At least 94 people were killed in Indonesia’s Aceh province, hospital and local officials said.
Bireun district head Mustofa Glanggang told The Associated Press that 50 people were killed in Bireun district, and 35 bodies were brought to Cut Meutia Hospital in the northern city of Lhokseumawe, an official there said. Nine others were killed in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, witnesses told a local radio station.
Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region.
“The ground was shaking for a long time,” resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta’s el-Shinta radio station. “It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years.”
Twenty people died and many were missing in popular southern Thailand resorts, said Sorajak Chusaeng, 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.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said a powerful earthquake jolted a wide area of that country early Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake was reported to be a magnitude-7.3.
Police in Malaysia said seven people were killed in tidal waves.
'Ring of Fire'
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.
In Colombo, the Seismological Department said that they believe the tidal waves in Sri Lanka were caused by earthquakes earlier Sunday in the Southeast Asia. “We are not 100 percent sure, but this is our initial finding,” S. Premalal, a Seismological Department officer said.
The Indonesian quake struck 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. |
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| Jackson |
it happened a couple of hours ago...its all over british tv at the moment and they have now updated the quake to 8.9!!!
Here's some links.
Yahoo report
CNN Report
BBC Report |
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| nrjizer |
| Phuket... anyone else think this is a great name for a village? |
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| D-res |
| quote: | Originally posted by nrjizer
Phuket... anyone else think this is a great name for a village? |
:haha: hellz yeah :wtf: |
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| Pettiscool |
| sorry to hear about this. |
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| Dj Dissent |
| this is horrible |
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| [N]űk|ęű[Z] |
| damn that sucks :( merry in christmas :whip: |
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| Magnetonium |
| Beware, but this is probably the first of several major quakes around the world to come in this century. No need to take the prophecies to understand it - earthquakes have shockwaves that can trigger other quakes elsewhere, depending on magnitude and timing. No need to even imagine other natural disasters to come this century. Global temperature rise will give rise to many more natural disasters. Just be ready and beware. |
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