Biggest earthquake in 40 years hits Southeast Asia

[Urban Ranger]

Ted has already put it in perspective.

Ted Striker

[Alexander's Horse]

It would be nice if the untold billions being spent on the war in Iraq were channelled into relief efforts - expect to see more comments like that. This makes the Iraq war look even more immoral and obscene.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by germanos
Over here many talk about a sea-quake, which strikes me as very odd.

Yes, our media once again assume we're all stupid idiots with the average IQ of a doorknob and won't be able to cope with a such a difficult Japanese word


As far as relief efforts go, the US is even now only contributing about $0.12 per US citizen Compare that to the $300ish per inhabitant that has so far been spent in Iraq...

Of course, other countries are doing only slightly better, if at all. Per inhabitant, Australia, Kuwait and the United Arabic Emirates are probably the biggest contributors with $0.38, $0.45 and $0.80 respectively ($7.6m, $1m and $2m in absolute figures). The EU is the biggest absolute contributor with $45m, but that's still only $0.10 per inhabitant ($0.12 if you leave the 10 new member states out of the equation, because we know most of those can't contribute much), although the richer of the individual EU nations (e.g. GB, France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc) are on top of that also giving a few million each ($0.01-$0.12 per inhabitant). China gets the 'honour' of contributing the least per inhabitant at a whopping $0.002 ($2.6m total).

Yes, we are all so generous

[Chemical Ollie]

2 colleagues from my job have called to work and said they and their families are safe. One is in Thailand, one on Sri Lanka. Both are person I have a lot of daily business with. Also the sister of another colleague is safe. She was on a both ride when the waves hit.

[Chemical Ollie]

Up to 80 000 dead, on Sumatra alone, according to Svenska Dagbladet. In some areas, there are not enough survivors to count the dead.

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Odin
It's about time Tripledoc posts something that isn't some kind of crazy conspiracy theory. The mindless acts of nature shows what bunk the doctrine of the monotheistic religions are.

Didn't you know that the earth is actually governed by a trilateral commisson consisting of Pluto, Zeus and Neptune?

[Chemical Ollie]

Well, Neptune has spoken

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Up to 80 000 dead, on Sumatra alone, according to Svenska Dagbladet.

Yeah read that too. What a disaster.

[GePap]

Is it really any surprise that a quake of magnitude 9 would kill say 100,000, especially in a relatively poor part of the world?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Locutus


Yes, our media once again assume we're all stupid idiots with the average IQ of a doorknob and won't be able to cope with a such a difficult Japanese word


As far as relief efforts go, the US is even now only contributing about $0.12 per US citizen Compare that to the $300ish per inhabitant that has so far been spent in Iraq...

Of course, other countries are doing only slightly better, if at all. Per inhabitant, Australia, Kuwait and the United Arabic Emirates are probably the biggest contributors with $0.38, $0.45 and $0.80 respectively ($7.6m, $1m and $2m in absolute figures). The EU is the biggest absolute contributor with $45m, but that's still only $0.10 per inhabitant ($0.12 if you leave the 10 new member states out of the equation, because we know most of those can't contribute much), although the richer of the individual EU nations (e.g. GB, France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc) are on top of that also giving a few million each ($0.01-$0.12 per inhabitant). China gets the 'honour' of contributing the least per inhabitant at a whopping $0.002 ($2.6m total).

Yes, we are all so generous

IIUC it takes time to evaluate needs, etc. The US is also sending military transport assets, etc though that doesnt count as monetary aid. I have not heard the NGOs saying theyre constrained by lack of $ so far.

Also of course the above figures count only govt aid - europeans and Americans are big contributors to the NGOs that will play a big role.

[Pekka]

Chemical Ollie, what's the update on Swedes? They were the largest tourist group in there out of all............

and hells yes I hope EU sends as much aid as huimanly possible. 45 million is not the best we can do. They need all kinds of stuff and personel etc etc..

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
It would be nice if the untold billions being spent on the war in Iraq were channelled into relief efforts - expect to see more comments like that. This makes the Iraq war look even more immoral and obscene.

It would be nice if the money you spent on your SUV would be channeled into relief efforts. This makes your SUV even more immoral and obscene.

[lord of the mark]

UK just pledged $30 million.

[Pekka]

UK

Of course the problem is, they will be needing money in long run as well. So it's not like this is the last of the money people will send. However, it should not matter, lot of lives can be saved or lost.

[Tripledoc]

Speaking of weird conspiracy theories.

Earthquake: Coincidence or a Corporate Oil Tragedy?
By: Andrew Limburg

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on seismic activity, but there has been a series of events which led up to the 9.0 earthquake of the coast of Indonesia which can not be ignored. This all could be an enormous coincidence, but one must look at the information and choose for themselves whether there is anything to it.

On November 28th, one month ago, Reuters reported that during a 3 day span 169 whales and dolphins beached themselves in Tasmania, an island of the southern coast of mainland Australia and in New Zealand. The cause for these beachings is not known, but Bob Brown, a senator in the Australian parliament, said "sound bombing" or seismic tests of ocean floors to test for oil and gas had been carried out near the sites of the Tasmanian beachings recently.

According to Jim Cummings of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, Seismic surveys utilizing airguns have been taking place in mineral-rich areas of the world’s oceans since 1968. Among the areas that have experienced the most intense survey activity are the North Sea, the Beaufort Sea (off Alaska’s North Slope), and the Gulf of Mexico; areas around Australia and South America are also current hot-spots of activity.

The impulses created by the release of air from arrays of up to 24 airguns create low frequency sound waves powerful enough to penetrate up to 40km below the seafloor. The “source level" of these sound waves is generally over 200dB (and often 230dB or more), roughly comparable to a sound of at least 140-170dB in air.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, these 200dB – 230dB shots from the airguns are fired every few seconds, from 10 meters below the surface, 24 hours a day, weather permitting.

These types of tests are known to affect whales and dolphins, whose acute hearing and use of sonar is very sensitive.

On December 24th there was a magnitude 8.1 earthquake more than 500 miles southeast of Tasmania near New Zealand, with a subsequent aftershock 6.1 a little later in the morning that same day.

On December 26th, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at the intersection of the Australian tectonic plate and the India tectonic plate. This is the devastating tragedy that we have all heard about. The death toll of this horrific event has reached 52,000 souls and continues to rise.

On December 27th, 20 whales beached themselves 110 miles west of Hobart on the southern island state of Tasmania.

What is interesting about this is that the same place where the whale beachings have been taking place over the last 30 days is the same general area where the 8.1 Australian earthquake took place, and this is the same area where they are doing these seismic tests. Then 2 days after the Australian tectonic plate shifted, the 9.0 earthquake shook the coast of Indonesia.

A great deal of interest and seismic testing has been taking place in this area, as the government of Australia has given great tax breaks to encourage the oil exploration.

We will be following up on this story as more information is gathered.

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