Big Sumatra Quake: Wave hits Sri Lanka, India,

[Gokul43201]

Does that mean that our net gain of day microseconds will increase by 12? I know that our calenders are supposed to be super accurate considering the time they were made, but would this cause a need to adjust the calenders earlier than expected a thousand or so years down the road?

The calendars get adjusted much more often than you think.

In 1752, when we switched to the Gregorian calendar, they had to take off 11 days to fix the calendar !

In the 60s, the new calendar based on Ephemeris Time was established, and with a few small changes things were fixed.

Then in '67 the new definition of the second was implemented, and about a decade later, we switched (yet again) to a new time scale - Terrestrial Time. Each switch requied a recalibration and resetting of time.

So really, making a one second adjustment, several millenia from now should not be a worry.

 

[marley.wannabee]

this BBC article has a map
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4125481.stm#map

people who regularly watch broadcast TV will have already seen this
but those who don't (like myself) may not have

many thousands of lives were lost in the Tsunami which spread out from the point in Indonesia where the quake occurred
the quake was said to be the worst in 40 years
(I haven't had time to compare several sources for confirmation)

Marcus, thanks for starting this off right and bringing it along. This is by far the best thread on the net(i only speak english) pertaining to this.

 

[Orion1]

Titanic Tsunamis...

Aug. 16, 1976
A tsunami generated by a quake on Mindano in the Philippines killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people in the Moro Gulf region.

March 28, 1964
A magnitude 8.4 quake in Alaska generated tsunamis that caused damage in southeastern Alaska, in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and in the states of Washington, California and Hawaii. More than 120 died.

May 22, 1960
The largest earthquake - magnitude 8.6 - of the 20th century occurred off the coast of south central Chile. It generated a Pacific-wide tsunami, which was destructive locally in Chile and throughout the Pacific Ocean. The tsunami killed an estimated 2,300 people in Chile.

Jan. 31, 1906
A strong tsunami struck the coast of Ecuador and Colombia, submerging half of Tumaco, Colombia, and washing away half of a nearby island. The death toll has been estimated at between 500 and 1,500.

Aug. 13, 1868
A massive wave struck Chile, carrying ships as far as three miles inland at Arica. Deaths totaled 25,000 or more.

April 2, 1868
A locally generated tsunami swept over the tops of palm trees and claimed 81 lives in Hawaii.

On April 1, 1946, a 7.3 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands generated a tsunami which struck the Hawaiian Islands. The tsunami claimed the lives of 159 people in (what is now known as) the state of Hawai'i (122 from the Big Island) and caused $26 million in damages.

On November 5, 1952, an 8.2 earthquake occurred off the Southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Far East. Tsunami waves were generated and spread across the North Pacific at more than 500 miles per hour. Then just five years later, on March 9, 1957, an earthquake measuring 8.3 occurred in the Aleutian Islands generating a tsunami. Waves up to 75 feet high were reported on Umnak Island. The tsunami traveled 2,440 miles across the Pacific, at a speed of just under 500 miles per hour, and first reached Kauai at 9 a.m.

The tsunami to strike the state of Hawai'i on May 23, 1960 was generated from a 8.3 earthquake in Chile. Much of the damage occurred in Hilo, Hawai'i, where 61 people were killed, 537 buildings destroyed and damages totaled over $23 million.

On November 29, 1975 a 7.2 earthquake occurred locally in the area of Kalapana, Hawai'i. The earthquake generated a tsunami with a maximum height of over 47 feet. The earthquake and tsunami took the lives of two campers and caused property damage estimated at $4.1 million.

At 6:49 p.m. on July 17, 1998, an earthquake occurred at the western end of the Bismark Sea and measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale. About 20 minutes later, a tsunami wave crashed ashore and inundated a 20-mile stretch of beach from west of Aitape to the village of Serai. There was a total of three devastating waves. Villagers were crushed in their huts, buried under sand and debris, and many drowned. In all, 2202 people lost their lives and 1000 more were injured. A total of 10,000 survivors lost their homes and personal possessions.

Ancient tsunami reached 4 miles inland

HONOLULU (AP) _ Scientists have determined a gigantic tsunami hit the Big Island 120-thousand years ago.

The wave surged almost four miles inland and deposited fossil-laden sand up to an elevation of at least 16-hundred feet.

The University of Hawaii's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology says the tsunami was generated by the Alika Two Landslide, which came down the western slope of nearby Mauna Loa.

The resulting wave surged across a coral terrace, now located at a depth of 14-hundred feet, before moving inland.

The wave left a deposit of smashed-up marine shells, chunks of lava rock, lumps of soil and fragments of coral, all cemented together by what was once coralline sand.

A giant tsunami caused by the collapse of part of Mauna Loa volcano 120,000 years ago surged more than four miles inland and deposited coral at the 1,600-foot level of the Big Island, according to University of Hawaii scientists.

The researchers tied the deposit to similar material at a coral terrace now 1,400 feet below sea level.

The scientists believe the coral deposit is evidence of a so-called megatsunami.

The deposit is 120,000 years old, the same age as the underwater coral terrace and what is known as the Alika 2 Landslide.

The scientists theorize that the landslide, which sent 120 cubic miles of material into the ocean from Mauna Loa, created a megatsunami that swept miles inland. In contrast, the material from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and landslide was less than one cubic mile, the scientists said.

These gigantic landslides occur in Hawaii about every 200,000 years, Fryer said. The largest giant landslide occurred several hundred thousand years ago off Oahu when half of the Koolau Volcano fell off, creating what is now the Windward side of Oahu.

The theory of megatsunamis is controversial among geologist...

Reference:
www.harktheherald.com
http://www.tsunami.org/archivespics.htm
http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=3097
http://starbulletin.com/2004/09/02/news/story4.html

 

[sage]

here are some astounding news coming from andaman and nicober islands that has been the epicentre of most of the aftershocks.

some of the first pictures coming from the remote southern islands of nicobar chain has shown that
1)some islands have undergone major subsidence losing over 30% of land area.
2)some islands have bodily moved by several hundred metres
3)some islands have disintegrated into several fragments with over 5 km(in one case) of sea seperating them now.

I've seen the pictures before and after and have heard millitary spokesperson of indian government saying this in a local news channel. however I'm pretty hardput to believe this. can such a large geological change possible in so short a time? hopefully more confirmation will come soon regarding the veracity of the statement.

 

[Teslonic]

Thank you all

I'm doing a report on this disaster and your posts have helped me a lot so I just want to say thank you.

Anti siesmic wave weaponry would be a very good idea although nuclear blasts wouldn't do it. The actual wave is a column of water that only rises when the sea floor rises (hits shore) so the time that the wave can be seen is small. I heard that the wave lowered the water level on the beach, before it struck, and so lots of people were drawn to the free fish but then the wave hit.

A percision weapon of any kind, like a missile, would be hard to manage (bulky, expensive, perhaps unsightly) and ineffective against a non-percision disaster like this. We have sensors in the pacific to give us some warning, although many people say that we don't have enough. Animals seem to have a sense of these things. Most of the animals that could got away, some 100 miles in land, to safety.

The Japanese had some experiments where they kept lots of animals in a lab and evacuated the city if all of them started freaking out suddenly. This saved the people a few times, once from a huge earthquake, but it also gave fail often, both when there wasn't an earthquake and not giving an alarm when there was an earthquake. Here's some documentation:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html#main

 

[Orion1]

Epicenter Ecological Extinction...


The Sumatra epicenter appears to be an Extinction Level Event on the epicenter ecology. The satellite photos posted in reference below are astonishing, the level of coastal destruction is high. The before and after photos of the local ecology diplay a once thriving ecology, and after the tsunami, a completely destroyed ecology, all ecological lifeforms - destroyed.

This definitely appears to be an Extinction Level Event, however, the types and number of species destroyed into extinction, may not ever be known by scientists.

Reference:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1311428/posts
http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html

Warning! this image is extremely graphic
http://img138.exs.cx/img138/18/tsunamiaftermath0wf.jpg