6.2 earthquake rocks Indonesia, 5,100+ dead

[Janice]

What will the affects be to the valcano nearby?

[Yarrah]

WHAT'S UP with THIS????
Could God be telling these people something?
Dennis

Nope, the seismic activity is caused by a subduction zone. To the south and west of Indonesia, an oceanic plate is being pushed under a continental plate (Indonesia is on top of this one). This subduction causes a lot of friction and leads to thousands of earthquakes every year. Most are harmless, but some are not (2004 quake and this one). The subduction also causes the vulcanic activity.
The birdflu is hitting the country so hard, because they hardly eat any other kind of meat. No pork (largest muslim country in the world) and hardly any beef. So almost everyone has a few chickens running around in their village and then it is easy to get contaminated with bird-flu

What will the affects be to the valcano nearby?

The quake made Mount Merapi a bit more active, but not much. Who knows, maybe this quake was a sign that the vulcano is ready to blow or maybe it had nothing to do with the vulcano.

[Yarrah]

Deathtoll up to 2900, according to ANP.

[TexasStooge]

Oh, dear!!

[feederband]

Man the world has been a rough place for humans latly...

[Stephanie]

It seems like certain areas of the world are being assaulted again and again by Mother Nature. Our Gulf Coast, the country of Indonesia, Australia with those hurricanes. I hope that this is it for them for a LONG time.

[HurricaneHunter914]

I hope so too, Indonesia and the whole world needs a break from these natural disasters and diseases.

[Yarrah]

Subarjo, a 70-year-old food vendor, sobbed next to his dead wife, his house destroyed.
''I couldn't help my wife ... I was trying to rescue my children, one with a broken leg, and then the house collapsed,'' he said. ''I have to accept this as our destiny, as God's will.''

Poor, poor people.

[HurricaneHunter914]

[conestogo_flood]

Oh geez. I just saw the story on the Toronto news station. They said 3,000 dead, and up to 150,000 displaced from their homes. Thats too bad .

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Wow I heard this earlier on the news. Would Expect it to keep rising.

[Scorpion]

Wow I heard this earlier on the news. Would Expect it to keep rising.

I doubt it. A 6.4 is not that powerful enough to kill tens of thousands.

[sunny]

Wow I heard this earlier on the news. Would Expect it to keep rising.

I doubt it. A 6.4 is not that powerful enough to kill tens of thousands.

Maybe not tens of thousands, but it seems it has claimed quite a lot of lives so far......for a 6.4 that is.

[Yarrah]

Deathtoll up to 3500, 200.000 homeless, according to the ANP.

[AussieMark]

Wow I heard this earlier on the news. Would Expect it to keep rising.

I doubt it. A 6.4 is not that powerful enough to kill tens of thousands.

thats not exactly true

remember the Bam Earthquake in 2003 that was only moderately more powerful and killed over 20,000. it was a 6.6. and this was a 6.2 or something.

basically anything over a 6 can be bad. and this was a fairly populated area remember

[azsnowman]

It seems like certain areas of the world are being assaulted again and again by Mother Nature. Our Gulf Coast, the country of Indonesia, Australia with those hurricanes. I hope that this is it for them for a LONG time.

I'm afraid it's JUST the beginning, I know a LOT will argue the fact BUT.....

What's making these disasters SO big, I mean, let's face it, the Earth is a VERY active planet, ever changing, never ceasing, the PROBLEM is the worlds POPULATION. There's been natural disasters of these magnitudes since the beginning of time!! The population is EXPLODING, look at the coast lines, east, south, west, all over for that matter, a RECORD number of people are moving to the coast no MATTER the cost!! Another example, look at us, we are in the WORST fire season in recorded history but has it slowed people from moving up here? NO!!


Dennis

[Janice]

Yes, the past couple of years we have had extreme cane activity in the US and now Indonesia has been getting the same bad activity since the tsunami. Scary, huh?

[wxmann_91]

Wow I heard this earlier on the news. Would Expect it to keep rising.

I doubt it. A 6.4 is not that powerful enough to kill tens of thousands.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/wor ... deaths.php

A 5.5 quake killed a thousand in El Salvador in 1986. A 5.6 killed 2400 in Nicaragua in 1931. With a 6.4 quake exponentially more powerful than the aforementioned ones, tens of thousands of deaths are not out of the question, especially in an poor country with poor building codes such as Indonesia.

[Janice]

Thanks for the great info. Who would think?

[Brent]

It's all about the location and time of day. This occurred in the early morning when most were sleeping which added to the death toll, and most of the structures aren't that strong to begin with. A 6.2 in California with strict building codes for quakes wouldn't be nearly as bad.