Biggest earthquake in 40 years hits Southeast Asia

[Sirotnikov]

This is fscking terrible.

When I see it on TV I want to buy a plane ticket and fly out to help somehow.

I don't know if I'll be useful, but I bet I can organize administrative stuff, and perhaps carry stuff or something.

[Chemical Ollie]

Some islands with a total of 30 000 inhabitants close to the epicentre have simply got off the map.

2000 Swedish tourists are missing.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Some islands with a total of 30 000 inhabitants close to the epicentre have simply got off the map.

Heard that too

There are so far no contacts with these islands, so the precise situation is completely unknown.

Last time I heard, there were like 25,000 dead, and even more disappeared people.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by GePap


Had not been mentioned yet, yet it was what, last year?

It was exactly a year before this one, Dec 26 2003...

BTW, I heard on the news that these tsunamis had a speed of over 400mph when they hit shore. How can anyone survive a 30 ft wall of water with that speed?

[Sirotnikov]

Some of the stories are horrible.


A Belgian couple were on holiday in Thailand, and their 11 month old baby, Matan, was washed away with the tide...

I intended to post his picture but decided against it.

There are so so many...


Posting just one story would somehow ignore the rest.

[Dis]

what seems strange to me is that 1964 quake didn't kill more people. It was bigger.

It only killed a few people in California, Oregon, and Alaska.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Hueij

It was exactly a year before this one, Dec 26 2003...

BTW, I heard on the news that these tsunamis had a speed of over 400mph when they hit shore. How can anyone survive a 30 ft wall of water with that speed?

divine intervention.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Hueij

It was exactly a year before this one, Dec 26 2003...

BTW, I heard on the news that these tsunamis had a speed of over 400mph when they hit shore. How can anyone survive a 30 ft wall of water with that speed?

they don't.

I suspect most of the survivors weren't out in the open, but inside structures, and then were swept out to sea in the backwash.

On the news I heard it took 20 minutes of swimming to get back to shore.

Those that survived had the endurance to swim that long.

[Dis]

possible 42,000 deaths now!

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041228/D878B53O0.html

[asleepathewheel]

Quake May Have Altered Earth's Rotation // May have shortened the day by 3 microseconds, said gravity expert Richard Gross of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena... On premise a slab slid into core, Gross said he's done calculations 'to see what effect this (earthquake) should have had.' The result: A day shortened... 'We won't know for weeks,' said a geophysicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'So it's a guess, as of now'...

from drudge

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I can understand why tsunamis are big, but can anyonne explain to me why there are so blasted fast?? They move at the speed of a commercial jet liner!!

v = f*lamda

v - velocity
f - frequency
lamda - wavelength

Since tunami waves can have wavelengths up to several hundred miles , they can go blazingly fast.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Hueij

It was exactly a year before this one, Dec 26 2003...

BTW, I heard on the news that these tsunamis had a speed of over 400mph when they hit shore. How can anyone survive a 30 ft wall of water with that speed?

oh I forgot. Another reason they survive is because the wave isn't travelling that fast when it hits land.

It slows down. This is the reason why it gets so high- as that energy has to go somewhere.

[Dis]

and the U.N. is already calling the U.S. stingy about its relief efforts.

[General Ludd]

The earth is a terrorist.



Let's bomb the ocean floor.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Dissident


and the U.N. is already calling the U.S. stingy about its relief efforts.

Compared to the Aussies and the EU, no doubt.