8.7 -8.9 Earthquake Aceh

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

These poor people. They've been through enough already.
Apparently there is a tsunami warning for all of the Indian Ocean.

http://rt.com/news/sumatra-indonesia...e-tsunami-765/

http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/initRecentQuakes.do

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

You're so right JJJ.

This is the USGS email. Sad the formatting gets lost.

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==



Region: OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
Geographic coordinates: 2.348N, 93.072E
Magnitude: 8.7 Mw
Depth: 33 km
Universal Time (UTC): 11 Apr 2012 08:38:38
Time near the Epicenter: 11 Apr 2012 14:38:38
Local standard time in your area: 11 Apr 2012 18:38:38

Location with respect to nearby cities:
431 km (268 miles) SW (216 degrees) of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
962 km (598 miles) W (265 degrees) of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia


ADDITIONAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
________________________________
event ID : US c000905e

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist at NEIC
For subsequent updates, maps, and technical information, see:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/...usc000905e.php
or
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey
http://neic.usgs.gov/


DISCLAIMER: https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/h...elp#disclaimer

[Forgey (Paula)]

Shocking, I read this and thought 'oh no not again haven't they suffered enough'.

[traveller (Bo)]

Hope not too many casualties, but then again, it is in one of the geologically (not to mention politically) unstable regions of the world.
Bo

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

15 minutes ago a 8.5 quake struck the same region. As if the first one wasn't bad enough.
.
This is most terrible.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Two USGS reports on aftershocks:

Mag 6.0 at 09:27:56UTC http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/...usc0009096.php

Mag 8.2 at 10:43:09UTC http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/...usc00090da.php

I only get emails for 6.0 and above after 8pm so there might be smaller ones.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Tsunami alerts have been withdrawn.
There'll be nightmares for a while after tonight.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Makes me realise just how lucky a country we are while we all go on complaining about how tough it is making ends meet in Australia. When imagine how we would be effected by what has happened in Aceh now and in the Tsunami do we as Australians really understand hardship.

I think not! one day we may be faced with what Aceh and other countries have faced and I really fear that we may not comport ourselves with the dignity and Resilience displayed by the Aceh people or the people in Japan after the Tsunami and associated troubles if we complain without really knowing how good we actually have it.

Travel to other parts of the world is a great eyeopener if you have the means but even if you don't these days we can travel virtually and still get the idea how good we have it and how little we really have to complain about but some are not satisfied and have to find something to gripe about I just find it is too easy for people to fall into the trap of saying I am one of the worse off in Australia instead of saying I am one of the better off people of the WORLD.

Sorry for the Rant just had to get it off my chest.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Some people need to step inside "The Total Perspective Vortex" for a spell, don't you think?

[traveller (Bo)]

not referring to a recent thread there are you jjj?

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Phew, I thought they were in for another big tsunami. The quake seemed similar to the last one, similar size and location, so I though the outcome would be similar. I can only assume that the movement of the sea floor was more horizontal than vertical this time. Still, as Jeanette said, this will bring back painful memories. I saw some pictures of people moving to higher ground and the panic was obvious. Even though there was no physical damage done there will still be social/emotional damage. The life of those people will be out of wack for weeks to months.

Originally Posted by supernova1965

one day we may be faced with what Aceh and other countries have faced....

We are obviously lucky geologically speaking in that active faults and volcanoes are quite distant from us. The biggest threat in that regard is from something happening to the shaky isles, and if that happens the poor kiwis will be in a much worse state than us. (If Taupo was to erupt as it did 26,500 years ago most life on the north island would be killed.)

Still we are not immune. There is IMHO ample evidence that a good sized tsunami, perhaps even a mega tsunami, struck this coast fairly recently, maybe as recent as 500 years ago. Although the length of the coast that was affected is still unclear (there is a PhD in progress investigating this) it seems it was fairly localised and the guess is that it was a small asteroid impact that caused it. There is some fairly vague evidence from the south of NZ and antarctica in support of this.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Mexico and California got a shake too

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by jenchris

Mexico and California got a shake too

About 1000 miles south of the US/Mexico border. Californians would probably ignore a mag 6.5 that far away.