8.7 QUAKE IN INDIAN OCEAN

[dixiebreeze]

8.2 quake occurs in Indian Ocean, tsunamis feared: Japan agency+...
Lasted up to three minutes,,, same location as giant quake that hit area Dec. 26...

Great Quake measuring 8.2 on Richter hit Indonesia's tsunami-devasted Sumatra island late Monday, causing major panic, power blackouts...

[dixiebreeze]

Here's more:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1629Z 28 MAR 2005

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THERE IS NO TSUNAMI WARNING
OR WATCH IN EFFECT.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1610Z 28 MAR 2005
COORDINATES - 2.3 NORTH 97.1 EAST
LOCATION - NORTHERN SUMATERA INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 8.5

EVALUATION

THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC. NO TSUNAMI THREAT
EXISTS TO COASTLINES IN THE PACIFIC.

WARNING... THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A WIDELY
DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI IN THE OCEAN OR SEAS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE.
AUTHORITIES IN THOSE REGIONS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY
AND TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. THIS ACTION SHOULD INCLUDE EVACUATION
OF COASTS WITHIN A THOUSAND KILOMETERS OF THE EPICENTER AND CLOSE
MONITORING TO DETERMINE THE NEED FOR EVACUATION FURTHER AWAY.

THIS CENTER DOES NOT HAVE SEA LEVEL GAUGES OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC
SO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT OR MEASURE A TSUNAMI IF ONE WAS
GENERATED. AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE DANGER HAS PASSED IF NO
TSUNAMI WAVES ARE OBSERVED IN THE REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER
WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE BULLETINS
FOR ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

[dixiebreeze]

Thanks for restoring my original post --

[Steve H.]

Hey, which is correct; 8.2 or 8.5

[dixiebreeze]

Not sure, but they are calling it a "Great Quake."

[Steve H.]

OK, Thanks. We'll have to wait & see I guess. Those tenths on the Richter scale make a lot of difference.

[StormChasr]

The latest on the news had it at 8.7, with the possibility of a local tsunami.......OMG, those poor people. May the Lord have mercy on their souls.

[dixiebreeze]

Now an 8.7:

Major Quake Off Indonesia Island Damages Hundreds of Buildings; Dozens Likely Buried in Rubble
A large earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island late Monday, and the U.S. Geological Survey said it was a major quake measuring a magnitude of 8.2. (AP Graphic)
By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia Mar 28, 2005 — A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island late Monday, damaging hundreds of buildings and sending residents fleeing in panic. Officials issued a tsunami warning for as far away as Sri Lanka.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS research geophysicist.

[Steve H.]

Well, I'd like to see this confirmed. News sources (FOX & CNN) have not officially changed the 8.2. This would be a considerable uptick.

[cycloneye]

50 people killed and about 300 homes were destroyed on the island of Nias, near the epicenter of a massive earthquake that struck off the coast of Indonesia on Monday, a government official there told CNN.

About 100 people were injured, and many others were believed buried under rubble, Agus Mendrova said.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 people were running about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to hilltops for safety in case of a tsunami, he said.

Meanwhile, a tidal gauge has detected a small tsunami in the Indian Ocean several hundred miles southwest of the earthquake.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that an instrument near the Cocos Islands recorded the passing wave, but the magnitude of the "small" tsunami was not clear.

The agency said no major tsunami has been observed near epicenter of the earthquake which was upgraded from a magnitude of 8.2 to 8.7. An aftershock measuring 6.0 struck 30 minutes after the initial quake.


From CNN.

Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS research geophysicist.

From Foxnews

[dixiebreeze]

JUST IN:

'100 percent' chance of tsunami after quake: US seismologist

17 minutes ago


LOS ANGELES (AFP) - There is a "100 percent" chance of a tsunami threatening Indian Ocean nations following a massive 8.7 magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia, a US seismologist said.

Latest Headlines:
· U.S. Moves to Aid Earthquake-Hit Nations
AP - 8 minutes ago

· '100 percent' chance of tsunami after quake: US seismologist
AFP - 17 minutes ago

· Tsunami alerts cause panic across Asia after huge quake off Indonesia
AFP - 56 minutes ago
Special Coverage
-------------------------------------------------------------"My personal view is that a tsunami has a 100 percent chance of happening," US Geological Survey earthquake expert Kerry Sieh told journalists in Los Angeles.


The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "immediate action" against a tidal wave following the quake off Sumatra island which it estimated at 8.5 on the Richter scale. The US Geological Survey, one of the global leaders in earthquake monitoring, said it was 8.2 on the Richter scale.


It was the biggest aftershock since the December 26 quake in the same region that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and caused a tidal wave which killed 273,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean.


The epicenter of the new quake was about 205 kilometers (125 miles) west of Sibolga on Sumatra and 245 km (150 miles) southwest of the Sumatra city of Medan.


An earthquake over 8.0 on the Richter scale is strong enough to cause massive damage and loss of life.

[cycloneye]

Scientists say the threat of a tsunami striking Indonesia and Thailand may have passed because a wave like the one that hit the region on December 26 would have reached those countries almost immediately. Monday's quake struck at 11:09 a.m. ET (1609 GMT).

Officials in Kuala Lumpur issued an official tsunami warning for the west coast of Malaysia and the east coast of Sumatra. The warning has a six-hour window, and is based on the December earthquake, which struck at 9 a.m. local time and was followed four hours later by the tsunami.


Great news that a big tsunami like the one at december 26 has not occured only a more small one moving southward towards the Mauritious islands.

[dixiebreeze]

I sure hope they're correct, Cyclone -- those folks have had enough tragedy.

[cycloneye]

SYDNEY : A 10-centimetre tsunami rolled into Australia's remote Cocos Island early on Tuesday following a powerful earthquake off Indonesia, Australian authorities reported.

"The Bureau of Meteorology has reported a 10-centimetre tsunami was measured by the tide gauge at Cocos Island," Geoscience Australia said.



The meteorology service said it expected the small tidal surge to reach Australia's west coast around 4:00 am (2000 GMT) and take two to three hours to wash up and down the coast.

Cocos was hit by a 50-centimetre tsunami following the December 26 earthquake off Sumatra, but no damage was caused.

Cocos Island lies south of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. -

Great news that a big tsunami has not formed from this powerful quake.

[msbee]

Magnitude 8.7 - NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2005 March 28 16:09:36 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A great earthquake occurred at 16:09:36 (UTC) on Monday, March 28, 2005. The magnitude 8.7 event has been located in NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)





Magnitude 8.7
Date-Time Monday, March 28, 2005 at 16:09:36 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Monday, March 28, 2005 at 11:09:36 PM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 2.076°N, 97.013°E
Depth 30 km (18.6 miles) set by location program
Region NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
Distances
205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
245 km (155 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
535 km (330 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
1410 km (880 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 4.8 km (3.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst=135, Nph=135, Dmin=537.4 km, Rmss=0.79 sec, Gp= 43°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usweax

[HURAKAN]

296 Dead in Indonesia Quake, Official Says

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A major earthquake struck late Monday off the west coast of Indonesia, and a local government official said 296 people were killed in collapsed buildings. Thousands panicked in countries across the Indian Ocean as tsunami warnings were posted.

Latest Headlines:
· 296 Dead in Indonesia Quake, Official Says
AP - 3 minutes ago

· Tsunami alerts cause panic across Asia after huge quake off Indonesia
AFP - 4 minutes ago

· Dozens Killed by Quake Off Sumatra; No Tsunami Yet
Reuters - 25 minutes ago


Special Coverage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSS:






Fears of another catastrophe similar to December's devastating tsunami eased within hours, as officials in countries closest to the quake's epicenter said there were no reports of big waves striking their coasts after the temblor was reported.


Early reports of damage and casualties were confined to the island of Nias, off the Sumatran coast, close to the epicenter.


The quake collapsed about 70 percent of houses and buildings in the town of Gunungsitoli, said police Sgt. Zulkifli Sirait.


Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on Nias island, told el-Shinta radio station that 296 people were killed. He said this figure was based on reports from humanitarian workers on the island.


"We still cannot count the number of casualties or the number of collapsed building because it is dark here," Sirait said in a telephone interview. "It is possible that hundreds of people trapped in the collapsed buildings died."


Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26 that killed at least 175,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations and left another 106,000 missing. At least 340 residents of Nias perished and 10,000 were left homeless.


The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS geophysicist.


A tsunami warning was issued in Thailand and Sri Lanka, although officials later canceled it. The only tsunami reported within four hours was a tiny one — less than 4 inches — at the Cocos Islands, a group of 27 islands about 1,400 miles west of Australia with a population of about 600, meteorologists in Sydney said. No damage was reported.


"It seems this earthquake did not trigger a tsunami. If it had, the tsunami would have hit the coastline of Sumatra by now," said Prihar Yadi, a scientist with the Indonesia Geophysics Agency. "And if there's no tsunami on the coastline near the epicenter of the quake, there will not be one heading in the other direction."


Indonesian officials said the epicenter was in the Indian Ocean about 56 miles south of the island of Simeulu, off Sumatra's west coast, and just north of Nias. It was described by a USGS geologist as an aftershock of the devastating Dec. 26 quake.


Preliminary indications are that energy from the quake might be directed toward the southwest, said Frank Gonzalez, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. He stressed it was based on "very scanty information" about the epicenter and magnitude.


Monday's quake had an epicenter about 110 miles southeast of where the Dec. 26 quake was centered. The USGS said it occurred on a segment of the same fault line that triggered the Dec. 26 quake, the world's biggest in 40 years.


Two aftershocks — one measuring 6.0 and another measuring 6.7 — were reported in the same region late Monday and early Tuesday, the USGS said.


The quake occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles, and was centered 125 west-northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, and 150 miles southwest of Medan, Sumatra, the USGS said.


The depth does not mean a lot for a quake this large, Earle said, calling it a near-surface earthquake and comparable to the one in December. After that quake, the agency initially recorded the depth of the temblor at six miles. Shallow earthquakes like that generally are more destructive because the seismic energy is closer to the surface and has shorter to travel.


Monday's quake was considered to be at a moderate depth.





The Dec. 26 quake triggered a huge tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a passenger jet. More than 1.5 million people were left homeless in 11 countries.

In Banda Aceh, the Sumatran city hit hardest in December, Monday's quake spread panic as it briefly cut electricity. Thousands were awakened and poured into the streets.

The quake lasted about two minutes and felt like gentle swaying, like a rocking chair, causing people to feel dizzy.

People grabbed small bags of clothes as they fled tents and homes. Many were crying and jumping into cars and onto motorbikes and pedicabs to head for higher ground. Two women wearing prayer shawls and sarongs grabbed a fence and chanted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great."

"People are still traumatized, still scared, they are running for higher ground," said Feri, a 24-year-old aid volunteer who goes by one name.

Panic gripped at least one relief camp in Banda Aceh. An Associated Press photographer saw thousands fleeing their tents — but with nowhere to go, they milled in crowds along the road. Police with megaphones coaxed people back to their tents.

Warning sirens blared along Sri Lanka's east coast, the government urged people to evacuate immediately to higher ground, and all night trains traveling along the coast were suspended.

The Sri Lankan military was put on full alert and several naval ships monitored the coast, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. Fishermen at sea were warned not to return to shore.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga called an emergency meeting at her home with Cabinet members and went on state TV to assure the country "we are taking all precautionary measures."

Low-lying coastal areas in Malaysia's northern states also were evacuated.

On Dec. 26, the tsunami crashed onto coastlines in Indonesia's Aceh province within 45 minutes of the massive earthquake hitting offshore, but Sri Lanka was hit several hours later after the waves traveled the breadth of the Indian Ocean.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. diplomatic missions in Asia and Africa went into "battle mode" to respond quickly to any contingency.

The quake was felt as far away as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, more than 435 miles from the epicenter.

In Malaysia, panicked residents of Kuala Lumpur and Penang fled their apartments and hotels after authorities activated fire alarms. Police evacuated low-lying coastal areas of the northern states of Penang and Kedah.

"I was getting ready for bed, and suddenly, the room started shaking," said Kuala Lumpur resident Jessie Chong. "I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbors screaming and running out."

Singapore residents of high-rise apartments reported buildings swayed.

Slight tremors were felt in the Thai capital of Bangkok, and officials issued a tsunami warning in southern Thailand, where more than 3,000 died in December. Officials later said the danger appeared to have passed.

Japan's Meteorological Agency, which also recorded the quake, reportedly notified six Indian Ocean countries — Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Malaysia — about a possible tsunami.

NOAA spokesman Greg Romano said the U.S. State Department passed warnings to foreign governments.

Officials said after the December disaster that a tsunami early warning system could have saved many lives. Such a system exists in the Pacific but has not been established in the Indian Ocean.

Japan and the United States had planned to start providing tsunami warnings to countries around the Indian Ocean this month as a stopgap measure until the region establishes its own alert system.

[HURAKAN]

US Navy handout aerial photo shows the devastation along the tsunami-stricken coastal region near Aceh, on Indonesia's Sumatra island. A powerful earthquake of measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's tsunami-devasted Sumatra island, causing major panic and power blackouts, officials and reports said.

HORRIBLE

[Aslkahuna]

This particular shock appears to have closed a seismic gap between the 2004 rupture and a rupture zone from 1861.

Steve

[kamqercam]

as said from the global thread...

Another report update issued the quake at 8.7 I don't know if that was a mistake or not. My friend from Sri Lanka goes to the same college as me and said there was no reports of Tsunami waves hitting where her family lives. This is good news during a bad situation.

[cycloneye]

Take a look at that seismografh how it did when the quake was in full force.