Monster Quake & Tsunami off Sumatra

[Ophiolite]

I'm glad I stepped out for some shopping while that was sorted.. 5614, this may come across as rude, but do you bother to read what people post in reply to your queries? It often doesn't seem that way. After a while we might stop bothering.

 

it's meters not centimeters. 0.5 - 2.0m

 

Kedas I'm not being picky, but that's also 50 to 200cms. I wanted to emphasise to 5614 that the amplitude of the wave height in open sea is small. If I had said metres, he would likely have thought tens of metres.

[Kedas]

Kedas I'm not being picky' date=' but that's also 50 to 200cms. I wanted to emphasise to 5614 that the amplitude of the wave height in open sea is small. If I had said metres, he would likely have thought tens of metres.[/quote']

 

I think we can agree on 5 to 20dms

[Ophiolite]

Agreed. Definitively and definitely. (And my Smilies have stopped working again..)

[YT2095]

I heard the rise on the part that moved was 10 metres (so that`s about 33 feet), but I`ve heard conflicting reports of how LONG it actualy was? I`ve heard from several tens of kms to over 1000kms? does anyone really know, or have a reliable source?

[Kedas]

I heard the rise on the part that moved was 10 metres (so that`s about 33 feet), but I`ve heard conflicting reports of how LONG it actualy was? I`ve heard from several tens of kms to over 1000kms? does anyone really know, or have a reliable source?

 

you mean on the coast?

I heard a withnes say that just before it the sea pulled back for about 500meter so that's more or less an indication for a half period I guess.

[Ophiolite]

I think YT means over what length of fault was there a 10m displacement.

YT I'll try to find something.

[Gilded]

"I heard a withnes say that just before it the sea pulled back for about 500meter"

 

Yeah, depends a lot on the coast though. A Finnish tourist said the water came stopped right at their front door, and she was 300m away from the coast.

[YT2095]

you mean on the coast?

no no, the bit that moved Under the Ocean during the quake, Tecktonic plates or something like that.

it was a 10 metre rise according to Edinburough Seismic station (and a few other sources).

 

for all I know they could be wrong, it`s just what I`ve heard and read, and so I`de like some more data on it

 

 

oh yeah and last count was 59,000 ((

 

poor sods (

[Ophiolite]

Here from tthe NEIC site:

"Today's shallow, thrust-type earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra at the interface between the India and Burma plates. In this region, the Burma plate is characterized by significant strain partitioning due to oblique convergence of the India and Australia plates to the west and the Sunda and Eurasian plates to the east. Off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a northeastward direction at about 5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate. Preliminary locations of larger aftershocks following today's earthquake show that approximately 1000 km of the plate boundary slipped as a result of the earthquake. Aftershocks are distributed along much of the shallow plate boundary between northern Sumatra (approximately 3 degrees north) to near Andaman Island (at about 14 degrees north)."

My emphasis.

[YT2095]

so the 1`st reports of 1k long were correct then

 

no wonder it caused so much tragedy

[Gilded]

A sad event indeed, even for countries no where near the area. I recall there being tourists of over 50 nationalities were in the most severely damaged zones.

[ecoli]

Death toll is up over 57,000 expected to rise to 100,000 (according to WHO)...

[JohnB]

Recent reports put the toll at over 69,000 with at least as many more expected to die from exposure and disease. Aceh Province is the hardest hit as it was nearest the quake, because of complete disruption of communications, death toll for the area is not even estimated.

 

Sri Lanka reports over 1 million homeless. Sri Lankan gov calls for truce with Tamil Tigers to rebuild their nation. Tigers say that no international aid is getting through to them from gov controlled areas.

 

UN officials are calling it the largest natural disaster in History.

 

Australin Foreign Minister announces that there will be an Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean to supplement the one already operating in the Pacific. (Why some idiot thought that if we need one for the East Coast we don't need one for the West, I'll never work out.)

 

Burials have started in mass graves in many areas. Photgraphs and DNA evidence is being taken from the bodies before they are being interred so maybe one day we'll know who they were.

 

1500 Swedes, 300 Germans, 100 Italians, 100 Australians currently listed as missing.

 

Australia has 4 RAAF C-130 Hercs in the area and has pledged A$35 million in aid.

 

Sorry for the disjointed style, I'm typing as I listen to the ABC news.

 

Late: Satellite photos and helicopters in the area show the waves penetrated 10-15 kilometres inland in Aceh Province. What a mess.

 

Red Cross, Red Cresent, Care Australia, etc all starting to reach the regions effected. They need donations. Money for preference.

[Gilded]

Over 90 000 dead already... Due to lack of proper communications, as JohnB mentioned, the estimated amount is about 100 000. And then all the diseases... *sigh*

[Kedas]

The first news message I had about it talked about 300 dead.

Seems the world underestimate(d) the effects big time.

and some places still haven't got first aid.

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/28/news/toll.html

about wrong numbers.

There were still 30 missing Belgians yesterday due to a misscommunication the missing persons is only 9 now today. (and 2more dead unfortunately)

 

The worst thing that I heard on TV is that on some places they count the living instead of the dead.

[Gilded]

Over 120 000 overall dead announced, 80 000 in Indonesia... According to WHO, approximately 5 million homeless.

[psi20]

I heard there was a Buddhist temple sending clothes to another Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka, the temple is somewhere in CA. Anyone know the name of it? I missed it on the news.

[5614]

just an update on the 2 people i knew who were on one of the islands which was worst hit... the father is recovering, he has pneumonia (which if it gets out of control could be fatal, but otherwise he is recovering from it), he has deep cuts which have been stiched up and he lost a lot of blood and as now had a blood transfusion.

 

the child, i now know is a 5 year old daughter has recovered her sight (they believ she may have had bleeding in her brain or something).

 

they are both recovering and we're all realistically hopeful for them to fully recover (eventually) from this terrible event.

 

also if anyone uses google.com there is an appeal for money for it... google has NEVER had ANY advertisment of any sort on their main webpage, this is a first and shows the importance of aiding those countries and regions hit.

[InovFX]

TV in my country (There are MetroTV, Trans, etc) reportin 79,000 Dead in Indonesia (Nangroe Aceh Darussalam & North Sumatra). And Up to 125,000 Dead in Suth Asia and South East Asia

[coquina]

Did this quake cause them to grow significantly?

 

If there was a rupture in the plate off Sumatra, causing it to shift north, would this cause increased subduction at the northern boundary - raising the Himalayas significantly higher?

 

I found this -

http://www.virtualexplorer.com.au/2003/12/7/html/

 

But I'm not that familiar with the structural geology of the area - only that the Himalayas are still rising. I wonder if this quake caused them to take a significant jump.

 

They've put a GPS on the summit of Everest - won't it be interesting to see if data shows a significant movement.

 

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_5_21/ai_61692486

 

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/proceedings/asiangps/2002/overview/cds002pf.htm

 

This graphic is particularly interesting:

 

http://departments.oxy.edu/biology/bbraker/courses/bio105/images/15.3A,B%20Earth's%20crustal%20plat.JPG

 

Note the locations of the words split developing.

[Kedas]

Well they say that the earth did spin faster (microseconds) due to moving mass, but they also said it will be a temporarily change so I guess the same is true for the average ground level.

(although for specific areas the story could be different I guess.)

 

although on this site they talk about a permanent effect.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_world_story_skin/466502%3fformat=html

[coquina]

The earth may spin a tiny bit faster for a little while, but when mass is subducted one place it is extruded somewhere else. That is why the earth has stayed to same size for so long, and why there are only a very few rocks on the earth that are truly ancient. The rest of them have been subducted into the mantle and recycled.

 

For example the oceanic plate off South America is subducted beneath the landmass - taking the ooze from the ocean floor with it. When it reaches a sufficient depth, the water in it turns to steam, which causes volcanoes to form along the coastline - ie, the Andes, and in North America, the Cascades.

 

However, the major sites of rifting and extrusion are at the mid oceanic ridges where new oceanic crust is continually being formed.

[JohnB]

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse.

 

Evacuations of the Andaman Islands are being hampered by crocodiles. The damn things have left the creeks and invaded the towns and jetties. Radio reports today talked about people having to fight off the crocs to get to the evacuation boats.

 

There is also a behavioural shift, rather than hiding like a log, they are now an active predator.

[coquina]

I would guess that they are being driven by hunger too - that must mean that the entire food chain has been disrupted. Wonder how many fish and other near shore sea life has been killed.

 

Wonder what the noise of the earthquake and tsunami did to the echolocation ability of nearby dolphins and whales.

[inquisitive]

#35 to #40 on size and speed of wave:

 

In deep ocean the wavelength is several kilometers, but most is underwater and only about 1 meter is the surface height. The gradient is therefore very gentle and there is no breaking wave front .

 

Because these wavelengths are massive they act as shallow water waves, so the speed is governed by the depth:

c = sqroute of (gd) .....therefore in 4000m ocean they can reach around 700 km/hr

 

next they hurtle over the continentel shelf (around 100 to 200m deep)

c = sqroute of (gd) .....therefore in 200m they are slowed to max speed of 160 km/hr

 

next they run into inshore waters and then the shore and so probably come ashore at around 15 to 30 km/hr

 

As they are forced to slow, they build in height and steepness and form a breaking wave front.

This breaking wave front hits the land and the surge of wave can take many seconds to poor itself ashore.

 

A lot of variation in effect can happen depending of geography and contour of the ocean, continental shelf, inshore waters and the beach and inlying land.

 

A little Tsunami 2D animation shows one form and finish at this site:

http://www.seashoreantics.com/feature_000_tsunami.html

 

 

WARNING can save lives! People (in most geographically shaped coastal residences) will only need to hop onto the equivilent of a first floor balcony made of substantial materials such as stone/concrete.

Reality must be thought of as after the wave impact has settled, then water contamination, food stocks, energy, communication and shelter may still be massively adversly effected for the subsequent health of survivors.