g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-26 13:25
Nasty. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125481.stm
Wave of water 5 metres high swept ashore around sunrise, early morning.
The earthquake (~8.5) was monitored all over the world, I am puzzled as to why satellite images didn't pick the wave up, and why no early warning went out to India, Bangladesh, etc, as the wave would have taken an hour or two to reach there.
I haven't seen any reports as to what happened in the direction of Africa. It would have reached there.
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-26 13:52
Hardly any quakes on Dec 24th and 25th.
Calm before the storm? http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/world_moll_frames.html
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excell
Staff
Joined: Mar 19, 2001
# Posts: 14513
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 00:50
generally travelling at 500km/h is around 5 hours to reach "the low-lying Maldives islands, more than 2,500km"
That is pretty fast - but I also wonder why there were no warnings.
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Logan
Joined: Aug 14, 2002
# Posts: 3749
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 01:45
unfortunately because there is no warning system in place there (yet). other places have warnings 
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 02:01
It hit South Africa 12 hours later too. No damage as it was almost spent. Must have also hit North-West Australia.
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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 06:27
Trying to figure out how you can be on a beach getting a tan and NOT SEE a 25 foot wave swelling. How did it catch everyone so off guard? Does it move that fast ?
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JQ
Staff
Joined: Mar 11, 2001
# Posts: 2765
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 09:40
One report I heard said they can move 500 MPH, as fast as a jet. Kinda hard to get out of the way of something like that.
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stevenjm
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 824
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 10:42
Lucky break - was at phuket and phi phi islands last week and only returned to AU for a week of christmas before returning - Thanks Santa.
BTW Jcokos - there is a hell of a lot of low lying land in those areas so even if you did see it you would have to run a very long way to escape it.
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e10
Joined: Dec 10, 2002
# Posts: 409
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 12:57
I saw on one report that there was a lesser swell which came to shore then the sea pulled right back very quickly. Curious onlookers went down to shore to investigate and that is when the big one hit, crushing and drowning tham all. Not sure which of the hit areas that was being described.
It is hard to grasp a tragedy of this scale. The lives of 20 thousand people blinked out just like that. Then you see the camera focus on one screaming mother holding a dead child and you multiply that pain... It is just so unbelievably sad and my heart goes out to all dead and to the families that lost someone they loved.
Why is a warning system not in place?
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excell
Staff
Joined: Mar 19, 2001
# Posts: 14513
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 15:20
A TSUNAMI warning that could have saved thousands of lives was issued...
"We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration....
There is currently no warning system for the region.
People calling for this to be a warning - so such disaster can be avoided in future...
"Around the Pacific, there is a well-established tsunami warning system, and as recently as September this year the research agency Geoscience Australia called for a similar warning system to be established for the Indian Ocean region."
Australia will now be pushing harder for a warning system for the Indian Ocean.
Steve - glad to see you made it home.
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excell
Staff
Joined: Mar 19, 2001
# Posts: 14513
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 15:45
Just as a by the way..
I find this quite sick...
Google Adwords....
Earthquake Disaster.
Earthquake Disaster for Sale. Check out the deals now aff
www.ebay.com
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 18:00
Automated system. No-one at the controls.
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gamweb
Joined: Dec 01, 2004
# Posts: 10
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 22:57
I noticed the quake a few hours after it occured. I have a desktop program named XEarth. You see a revolving globe representing Earth. When you are connected to the 'Net, it shows earthquakes around the world. I remember when the BIG CIRCLE appeared in the Indian Ocean I said HOLY S***!
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 23:14
Jeez, there really is software for (almost) any topic these days! (Downloaded xearth, installed it, and got it working in less than 5 minutes).
Oh My! Also saw the Homeland Security Threat Monitor which "Displays the US Homeland Security threat color level in your Windows task bar".
[ Message was edited by: g1smd 12/27/2004 03:29 pm ]
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gamweb
Joined: Dec 01, 2004
# Posts: 10
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Posted: 2004-Dec-27 23:52
I'm waiting for the volcanic island of La Palma (near the Azores, I think) to drop a big rock into the Atlantic Ocean. Supposedly, it will generate a tidal wave 600 ft. high. Doubtful any meaningful evacuation will help us on the East Coast of the USA.
I believe a similar program would be more useful to me, that would show the Earth with weather conditions/satellite images. I live in Florida (hurricane land).
[ Message was edited by: gamweb 12/27/2004 04:10 pm ]
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2004-Dec-28 00:18
>> I'm waiting for the volcanic island of La Palma (near the Azores, I think) to drop a big rock into the Atlantic Ocean. <<
That ain't just a "big rock", it is about half of the volcano cone waiting to slide into the sea.
>> Supposedly, it will generate a tidal wave 600 ft. high. Doubtful any meaningful evacuation will help us on the East Coast of the USA. <<
You'll need to get yourself over to the West Coast, and hope for no Pacific Rim activity that day.
>> I believe a similar program would be more useful to me, that would show the Earth with weather conditions/satellite images. I live in Florida (hurricane land). <<
There are loads of progams and data feeds for that sort of stuff.
Additionally Aurora Monitors (http://aurora.n1bug.net/), and Solar Flare Monitors (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html) too.
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e10
Joined: Dec 10, 2002
# Posts: 409
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Posted: 2004-Dec-28 10:44
Hi,
I´m living in Tenerife so if the La Palma volcano blows then it´s lights out for me. Tenerife itself is home to El Teide, a dormant but still active volcano. They say it is only a matter of time before she blows her stack again, though that could be 5000 years or 5. Last time was in 1909.
There was something of a storm in a teacup a couple of months ago when a freak cloud formation gave an impression of a smoke plume coming out of Teide.
It will take months for the extent of the disaster in Asia to be seen. Once disentry, diarrhoea, malaria and the rest take hold hundreds or thousands more may die. Australia was calling for a warning system. Wonder how those who turned it down feel now?
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daingean
Joined: Oct 21, 2004
# Posts: 70
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Posted: 2005-Jan-02 21:53
The La Palma landslide threat is caused by a build up of water in porous rocks, I believe. When it reaches a critical point thousands of tons will crash into the sea. I wonder why the water can't be drained in some way, or the rock reduced in size? It might cost millions of pounds but that would be next to nothing compared to the lives that will be lost and damage caused when it does go.
Regards,
Martin.
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2005-Jan-02 22:02
Whoa. Some of the Thai Disaster Forums have 7000+ users and guests on at any one time, and several million hits for the week just gone by. Very few positive results seen in among the thousands of "Looking for..." posts.
Google is starting to give relevant results in searches, but it will be a while before a lot of information is easily found. So far, information can mainly be found by hopping from forum to forum and blog to blog.
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Sinoed
Joined: Dec 11, 2000
# Posts: 5266
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Posted: 2005-Jan-03 07:02
My aunt spent the past year and a half teaching in China (she's there now) and took a few trips around asia last summer while she was there. She spent several weeks in Thailand and visited many coastal villages and islands. She fell in love with one particularly lush island off the coast and started making plans to travel the area again with my uncle who is visiting in the spring. I can't even begin to imagine what its like for the families, the island and many of the people she met along the way have completely disspeared.
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