Largest earthquake in 40 years.

[unclehobart]

This story is changing all the time with the death toll shooting up. Its all rather chaotic at the moment.

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra took place ... no saying when. None of the stories I read gave a time stamp. A 20ft wall of water raced out an impacted the Aisan/Indian coastlines. Theres no telling wether this tsunami has the nads to reach Hawaii or the Pacific American coastline or when it will strike.

It would be nice if our island members would check in and say wether they were ok or not.

 

[Shadowfax]

from what i've read, it hit most of the coastal area in south-east asia. i didn't see any reports of the tsunami heading for hawaii of the pacific american coast actually.

horrible....thousands of people died

 

[Leslie]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041226/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake

that's a good detailed article on it, but I can't seem to see a time either. We will have to watch for ToolBox™ posting.

 

[Leslie]

He's online now, so no worries there.

 

[A.B.Normal]

It would be nice if our island members would check in and say wether they were ok or not.

Does Vancouver Island count ,or were you refferring to just Hawaii and the Philipines.Probably a good thing I hadn't heard about this before I went to bed last night,I don't think I would have slept all that well,not knowing if was headed our way.I hope everyone from OTC and their families are doing well.

 

[Gonz]

8.9!!!!!!!!!

That is muthahuimping absolutely amazingly magnificently huge!!!!

Last I saw, over 8700 dead. Burma hasn't checked in yet (nor have many smaller islands). Indonesia, Thailand & the southeast coast of India bore the brunt of ther tsunami.

 

[Luis G]

I doubt it'll reach the other side of the pacific.

It was an 8.9 followed by 9 earthquakes.

 

[Gonz]

I'd like to see more explanation of this

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

 

[Luis G]

I'd like to see more explanation of this

Sensationalism perhaps, I remember back just a few weeks before the levy-9 impacted Jupiter some scientists were saying that it would affect the whole planetary system and predicting the end of the world....

 

[chcr]

I'd like to see more explanation of this

Hyperbole.

 

[Winky]

An eathquake such as this causes the planet to 'ring' similar to striking a bell.

 

[chcr]

An eathquake such as this causes the planet to 'ring' similar to striking a bell.

Of course your right. The way the media used the quote was the hyperbole.

 

[Thulsa Doom]

Absolutely monstrous. This was almost Krakatoa like. They are saying 10,000 counted already but thousands are missing and there are still bodies danging from the TOPS OF TREES! They have been collecting them all day but cant do it in the dark.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

I was following this late last night. When I finally went to bed the count was 161, I knew that was gong to rise into the thousands. Crown-prince of Thailand missing!! whoops.

These are 20-30 footers, there are waves as high +200' from geologic record.

It says something about the education system there....

When the tide pulls back as far as a kilometer, you...

A.) Go to pick up the fish that are flopping on the floor
B.) run like hell because the tide will be back with a vengeance using all that energy it took to pull it out.

 

[Thulsa Doom]

it happened like 7am local time and it was a perfectly clear sunny day. Its not like people rushed down to the beach to gawk at the ocean. people were washed out of their beds and into trees. and buildings collapsed by the hundreds. Thousands of people never got a hint of a warning before they were dead.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

right, but somelpaces it was past 9:30 am (time zones) some places were humming with ppl.

 

[Gonz]

Summertime, on vacation, means beach weather & fishing. The beaches were crowded.

Somebody said there was suddenly 2 miles of previously unseen beach. 2 miles!

 

[Gonz]

Make that...

Magnitude 9.0 - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2004 December 26 00:58:50 UTC

USGS

 

[Gonz]

Moved the entire island of Sumatra about 100 feet toward the southwest; first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883...

 

[Inkara1]

See, now even Californians would concede that that's a hell of a quake.