Earthquakes and Tsunamis in Asia - 225,000+ dead

[DBAHO]

AT LEAST 1000 people were killed and many more were missing in Sri Lanka as tsunami waves smashed into the island, Prime Minister's top aide, Lalith Weeratunga, said.

 

The earthquake hit southern Asia today, setting off a tsunami that 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 US Geological Survey first struck at 7.59am (11.59am AEDT) 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 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.

 

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1965, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist for the US Geological Survey. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline," she said.

 

More than 100 tourists on diving holidays were missing on islands off southern Thailand following today's tsunamis, about 70 of them in the famed Emeral Cave, a tourist official said.

 

"We don't know whether they are dead or alive," the official told Reuters from the southern city of Trang.

 

The Emeral Cave, which contains a tiny white sand beach and water turned emerald by sunshine through a hole in the top, is a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to get into it.

 

But the worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of Sri Lanka's south and east and the chairman of the John Keells hotel chain said five of his hotels had been badly flooded.

 

At least 1000 were feared dead in Sri Lanka, the National Disaster Management Centre said.

 

"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams, we have deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake.

 

Police reports from the devastated coastal areas placed the fatalities at a minimum of 1000 dead, said Weeratunga who is the top civil servant in Premier Mahina Rajapakse's office which is coordinating the rescue and relief effort.

 

"We have police reports which place the death toll at a minimum of 1000," Weeratunga said.

 

"We don't have the full picture from some places which have been cut off."

 

An official in eastern Trincomalee said 3000 people had been displaced and six villages destroyed.

 

Along the southern Indian coast, as many as 74 people were killed and many injured by a tsunami there, hospital and government officials said.

 

Officials said 400 fishermen were missing in south India.

 

"Thirty-four are dead and 14 are admitted in hospital," said an official at the Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai, formerly known as Madras and the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

 

Dozens more were dead in Prakasam district in southern Andhra Pradesh and in Machalipatnam district, taking the total death toll in the state to 40, officials said.

 

The wave swept into the low-lying Maldive islands whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists, flooding two-thirds of the capital Male, said chief government spokesman Dr Ahmed Shaheed.

 

"The damage is considerable. The island is only about three feet above sea level and a wave of water four feet high swept over us," he said.

 

"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," he said.

 

"We have no communications with some of the outlying atolls. At this stage we fear the worst. We are trying to send boats to assess the damage, but our resources are stretched to the limit."

 

The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three tsunamis ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2500.

 

As many as 94 people were killed today in Indonesia's Aceh province on northern Sumatra island.

 

"They were mostly drowned by the waves," Bireuen regency mayor Mustofa said by telephone, adding that hundreds of houses had been swept away.

 

Indonesia's geophysics and meteorology office put the epicentre of the earthquake at 150km off the southern coast of the island and said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale.

 

"There was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city," said Bustami, a resident of the Aceh coastal town of Lhokseumawe. "In some parts the water was up to a chest level.

 

"People are quite panicked now, some of us are walking by foot and others are on military trucks going to higher ground."

 

Residents said waves as high as five metres struck the northern coast, killing at least nine, causing widespread damage and sending thousands fleeing in panic.

 

Residents said buildings collapsed and people fled their houses.

 

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where plate boundaries intersect and volcanoes regularly erupt.

 

In the Thai tourist island of Phuket at least one person was killed, four were missing and 100 injured when the wave, five to 10m high, crashed onto beaches lined with luxury hotels at the peak of the tourist season.

 

"There was a very large ocean wave after the earthquake and about 100 people were injured," Suparerk Tansriratanawong, director general of Thailand's Meteorological Department, told Reuters.

 

More than 10 people were killed and 100 injured or missing in the southern Thai province of Phang Nga.

 

The prime minister called for the evacuation of areas hit by a tsunami wave in three southern provinces, including Phuket.

 

"I have ordered that rescue officials move people out of the risk area," Thaksin told reporters.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was trying to determine whether any Australians were killed or injured in an earthquake which hit south east Asia today.

 

A DFAT spokesman said his department was making inquiries about the welfare of Australians in the region but so far there had been no reports of any casualties.

 

"We still don't know at this stage," he said.

[Rex Kickass]

According to NPR today, the toll is now over 5000 people.

 

[YASNY]

There's just no words that are adequate. :headshake

[kapkomet]

Could you imagine if an 8.9 earthquake hit somewhere above the ocean? Wow.

 

Earthquakes of this magnitude are absolutely amazing how they change the earth - they even change the orbit of the earth!!

[SuperSteve]

That is really crazy. I was reading about it earlier...one day something like that is going to hit the United States too.

[soxman352000]

Hopefully they will be able to recover from this tradgedy and continue on with their lives

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Reuters estimates over 12,300 died.

[YASNY]

That is really crazy. I was reading about it earlier...one day something like that is going to hit the United States too.

Yes, I'm sure it will happen sooner or later. The New Madrid fault is the one I'm concerned about. It's located at the Missouri bootheel and has basically been dormant since about 1812, but when it went then, it went big time. It actually changed the course of the Mississippi River and made the river flow backwards for a time. That's what created Reelfoot Lake in west Tennessee. Windows were broken in Cincinnati and it rang church bells as far away as Boston.

 

Of course, I'm only about 60 miles from there.

[Palehosefan]

You never know where a faultline might be that wasn't discovered before. I'm in the panhandle of Texas and a few years ago we actually had 5 earthquakes in one summer. Nobody ever realized earthquakes could or would hit here. They were small, but I actually felt one of them, made my dogs go nuts before it hit.

[kapkomet]

You never know where a faultline might be that wasn't discovered before. I'm in the panhandle of Texas and a few years ago we actually had 5 earthquakes in one summer. Nobody ever realized earthquakes could or would hit here. They were small, but I actually felt one of them, made my dogs go nuts before it hit.

I thought us Texans were safe from that crap.

[YASNY]

They are saying the death toll is now over 20,000.

[easyw]

As horrible as that is, that kind of s*** happens all the time in Asia. Open your Alamacs to the natural disasters section and read about some of the floods and earthquakes in China that kill 10 times that many people.

 

Its a sick sad world, I tell ya... And for all its problems, I'm thrilled to live in America, in Chicago, and not some disease-filled impoverished backwater...

[LosMediasBlancas]

Just noticed this thread. I bet this would have been more devastating had it hit land.

Related, nature story: Last year my wife and I were on a deserted beach in Peru. We had just gotten back into the shallow water, maybe waist deep, when suddenly it felt like the bottom dropped out like 4 feet at once and we were being pulled into the ocean. I'm not sure how, but we managed to get out. Later that evening, we found out there had been a minor earthquke in Lima. The locals said that kinda stuff happens sometimes and that people just dissapear.

[LosMediasBlancas]

As horrible as that is, that kind of s*** happens all the time in Asia. Open your Alamacs to the natural disasters section and read about some of the floods and earthquakes in China that kill 10 times that many people.

 

Its a sick sad world, I tell ya... And for all its problems, I'm thrilled to live in America, in Chicago, and not some disease-filled impoverished backwater...

It also happened in California.

[easyw]

A natural disater killed that many people in cali? When?

 

Unless that big Asian quake hit a major city, there probably would've been a lot less damage had it occurred on land. When a small, wood frame building - or grass hut - falls, there would be a lot more survivors...

[LosMediasBlancas]

A natural disater killed that many people in cali? When?

 

Unless that big Asian quake hit a major city, there probably would've been a lot less damage had it occurred on land. When a small, wood frame building - or grass hut -  falls, there would be a lot more survivors...

I forgot the dates, but twice it hit Cali. No, the magnitude was not that great, but a tsunami did hit Cali.

This one was like a 9 on the Richter scale, so depending on where on land it hit, it sure could have done more damage that it did.

I think the one in the 80's in SF was only like a 7 on the scale.

[GASHWOUND]

Jeez, this a disaster of epic proportions..unbelievable... :headshake

don't know what to say

[easyw]

Check out this table from the US Geo survey

http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/10maps_usa.html

 

Quakes in cali aren't nearly as big or as volitale as the ones that hit the Pacific NW US or Asia. Reason being, the tectonic plates causing quakes in cali are moving against each other, which causes some friction, and thus somewhat frequent earthquakes in the 6-7 Richter range, but nothing like subduction quakes, where plates are slamming under each other and measuring upwards of 9. The big one is coming, but not to Cali, it will be the area near Seattle...and it will happen in our lifetime and it will be bad.

 

As far as any tidal waves in the US go, I'm not aware of any that have caused large scale death and destruction.

 

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html

[LosMediasBlancas]

Check out this table from the US Geo survey

http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/10maps_usa.html

 

Quakes in cali aren't nearly as big or as volitale as the ones that hit the Pacific NW US or Asia. Reason being, the tectonic plates causing quakes in cali are moving against each other, which causes some friction, and thus somewhat frequent earthquakes in the 6-7 Richter range, but nothing like subduction quakes, where plates are slamming under each other and measuring upwards of 9. The big one is coming, but not to Cali, it will be the area near Seattle...and it will happen in our lifetime and it will be bad.

 

As far as any tidal waves in the US go, I'm not aware of any that have caused large scale death and destruction.

 

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html

You know, now that I look at those dates, it's the top 2 that caused tidal waves and tsunamis that hit Cali...it was on the Channel 7 news last night.

Nature scares the hell out of me.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

According to Fox News the death toll has passed 24,000.

 

Unreal.

 

 

[Chisoxfn]

Yes, I'm sure it will happen sooner or later.  The New Madrid fault is the one I'm concerned about.  It's located at the Missouri bootheel and has basically been dormant since about 1812, but when it went then, it went big time.  It actually changed the course of the Mississippi River and made the river flow backwards for a time.  That's what created Reelfoot Lake in west Tennessee.  Windows were broken in Cincinnati and it rang church bells as far away as Boston. 

 

Of course, I'm only about 60 miles from there.

Ya, in fact I think that fault had two extremely large earthquakes in a very short period.

[LosMediasBlancas]

There are usally after shocks, look for a few smaller ones to hit soon.

[Heads22]

Well, if I understand the Richter scale right, a 4 is 10 times as strong as a 3, a 5 is 10 times as strong as a 4, and so on.

 

So this 9 is 10 times an 8, 100 times a 7, 1000 times a 6 and 10000 times a 5.

[Cerbaho-WG]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...hreadid=1396397

 

Pictures courtesy of a goon from SA.

[YASNY]

Ya, in fact I think that fault had two extremely large earthquakes in a very short period.

I believe you are correct, sir.