Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-12-26 02:17am

There was a BBC breaking news alert. There are reports of a powerful earthquake (8.5 on the Richter scale) and hundreds of people dead from tsunamis. As electricity has been cut in many areas, the full extent of the destruction is unknown. This'll probably be updated as more information comes in.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-12-26 02:48am

Reuters wrote:650 dead as quake and tsunami hit southern Asia
Sun Dec 26, 2004 07:28 AM GMT

By Arjuna Wickramasinghe

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A huge earthquake has hit southern Asia, setting off a tsunami that has drowned hundreds in Sri Lanka and India, sent Indonesians rushing to high ground and washed away bathers on the Thai tourist island of Phuket.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.5 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey first struck at 7:59 a.m on Sunday (12:59 a.m. British time) off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.

A wall of water up to 10 metres (30 feet) high set off by the tremor swept into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and along the southern Thai tourist island of Phuket, leaving at least 650 people feared dead, officials said.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1965, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline," she said.

The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of Sri Lanka's south and east and the chairman of the John Keells hotel chain said five of his hotels had been badly flooded.

At least 500 were feared dead in Sri Lanka, the National Disaster Management Centre said.

"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams, we have deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake.

An official in eastern Trincomalee said 3,000 people had been displaced and six villages destroyed.

Along the southern Indian coast, as many as 74 people were killed and many injured by a tsunami there, hospital and government officials said.

BIG PARTS OF MALDIVES UNDER WATER

Officials said 400 fishermen were missing in south India.

"Thirty-four are dead and 14 are admitted in hospital," said an official at the Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai, formerly known as Madras and the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

Dozens more were dead in Prakasam district in southern Andhra Pradesh and in Machalipatnam district, taking the total death toll in the state to 40, officials said.

The wave swept into the low-lying Maldive islands whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists, flooding two-thirds of the capital Male, said chief government spokesman Dr Ahmed Shaheed.

"The damage is considerable. The island is only about three feet above sea level and a wave of water four feet high swept over us," he said.

"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," he said.

"We have no communications with some of the outlying atolls. At this stage we fear the worst. We are trying to send boats to assess the damage, but our resources are stretched to the limit."

The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three tsunamis ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2,500.

As many as 65 people were killed on Sunday in Indonesia's Aceh province on northern Sumatra island.

"They were mostly drowned by the waves," Bireuen regency mayor Mustofa said by telephone, adding that hundreds of houses had been swept away.

Indonesia's geophysics and meteorology office put the epicentre of the earthquake at 149 km (90 miles) off the southern coast of the island and said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale.

"There was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city," said Bustami, a resident of the Aceh coastal town of Lhokseumawe. "In some parts the water was up to a chest level.

"People are quite panicked now, some of us are walking by foot and others are on military trucks going to higher ground."

Residents said waves as high as five metres (15 ft) struck the northern coast, killing at least nine, causing widespread damage and sending thousands fleeing in panic.

Residents said buildings collapsed and people fled their houses.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where plate boundaries intersect and volcanoes regularly erupt.

In the Thai tourist island of Phuket at least one person was killed, four were missing and 100 injured when the wave, 5 to 10 metres (16 to 32 feet) high, crashed onto beaches lined with luxury hotels at the peak of the tourist season.

"There was a very large ocean wave after the earthquake and about 100 people were injured," Suparerk Tansriratanawong, director general of Thailand's Meteorological Department, told Reuters.

More than 10 people were killed and 100 injured or missing in the southern Thai province of Phang Nga.

The prime minister called for the evacuation of areas hit by a tsunami wave in three southern provinces, including Phuket.

"I have ordered that rescue officials move people out of the risk area," Thaksin told reporters.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Shit, this looks bad...

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-12-26 03:02am

What could cause something so big ? An asteroid impact maybe ?

Anyway this does not look very good for the Lankans who are already strained by a civil war at home.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-12-26 03:13am

The Shadow wrote:What could cause something so big ? An asteroid impact maybe ?

Uh, both the OP and the article I posted said it was an 8.5 earthquake that caused the tsunami (specifically, the quake was along an underwater faultline west of Indonesia)

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-12-26 04:10am

Damn, only 30 feet.

And a decent meteor impact would cause 1000...

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-12-26 04:13am

Now they're saying magnitude 8.9.

Link

Post by **Edi** » 2004-12-26 04:33am

The death toll is going to come up significantly. Already the reports are 400+ dead in Sri Lanka, 300+ dead and another 400+ missing in southern India, 100+ dead in Indonesia and Thailand, lots of people missing, and that's just from the places they have lines of communication to. The final tally will be in the thousands, because the tidal waves have hit basically everything around the Bay of Bengal. Fifth biggest earthquake all told from everything we have statistics for. The aftermath is NOT going to be pretty.

Edi

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 2004-12-26 06:13am

Rumor Mill already started on the Hizzile. These areas need Humanitarian Aid, and of course we're floating around with three 'Phibs. There is a slow realization that we may end up floating around the Indian Ocean for the next 4 months, without Hazard pay and us being on deployment in a non-taxfree zone, and no port visits.

It's a dirty Job, but someone has to do it. I hear they're evacuating what's left of Phuket.

Post by **The Wookiee** » 2004-12-26 07:32am

EDIT: Latest numbers.

India: 1,130
Indonesia: 1,870
Malaysia: 28
Sri Lanka: 2,150
Thailand: 168

Horrible.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-12-26 09:10am

Holy shit. According to the TV there were tremors felt by high rise buildings all over the city at 9.00 am this morning. Here I am at the 10th floor in Kuala Lumpur and I slept through the tremor.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-12-26 10:04am

My dad company just called him from Thailand. Apparently, the island of Fifi, and other islands near James Bond Islands were totally flooded. The scale is incredible, affecting everybody from Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand-India.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-12-26 10:05am

According to BBC news(TV), the earthquake split over 1,000 kilometers of the ocean seabed!!!

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-12-26 11:37am

The Wookiee wrote:EDIT: Latest numbers.

India: 1,130
Indonesia: 1,870
Malaysia: 28
Sri Lanka: 2,150
Thailand: 168

Horrible.

What the hell? All those people dead from one earthquake and a 30ft Tsunami??

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-12-26 11:37am

They're reporting over 7000 dead now.

Post by **The Wookiee** » 2004-12-26 11:42am

Lord Poe wrote:
The Wookiee wrote:EDIT: Latest numbers.

India: 1,130
Indonesia: 1,870
Malaysia: 28
Sri Lanka: 2,150
Thailand: 168

Horrible.
What the hell? All those people dead from one earthquake and a 30ft Tsunami??

One earthquake that rated 8.9 and caused MASSIVE Tsunamis. More people died from the tidal waves than the earthquake itself, the epicenter of which was centered off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-12-26 11:48am

Lord Poe wrote:What the hell? All those people dead from one earthquake and a 30ft Tsunami??

A lot of the islands there are only a few feet above sea level, same thing with the coasts. There's just nowhere to go when the water comes in.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-12-26 11:51am

Latest report on my TV. Some of waves completely swamped the offshore islands and went about half a mile inland when they hit the mainland.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-12-26 11:53am

The Wookiee wrote:
Lord Poe wrote:
The Wookiee wrote:EDIT: Latest numbers.

India: 1,130
Indonesia: 1,870
Malaysia: 28
Sri Lanka: 2,150
Thailand: 168

Horrible.
What the hell? All those people dead from one earthquake and a 30ft Tsunami??
One earthquake that rated 8.9 and caused MASSIVE Tsunamis. More people died from the tidal waves than the earthquake itself, the epicenter of which was centered off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.

Keep in mind that the 30ft Tsunami hit roughly twenty Islands across the most of their landmass

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-12-26 12:14pm

Damn, I've never heard of this level of disaster before, in that region. Is this unprecidented?

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-12-26 12:17pm

Malaysia seems to be up to 53 dead, still meager compared to India and Sri Lanka.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-26 12:17pm

The latest figure is 9000 and rising, now fatalities are coming in from as far away as Somalia. Also it wasn't one but two quakes apparently, one of the Northwestern tip of Indonesia and the second in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Bangladesh.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2004-12-26 12:17pm

Lord Poe wrote:Damn, I've never heard of this level of disaster before, in that region. Is this unprecidented?

In terms of loss of life due to a natural disaster- no.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-12-26 12:21pm

"All the planet is vibrating"

Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

I didn't even think this was possible via an earthquake.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-26 12:30pm

Lord Poe wrote:I didn't even think this was possible via an earthquake.

That does sound a bit far fetched, I don't see how it could do that even if it was a 10.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-12-26 12:31pm

Lord Poe wrote:Damn, I've never heard of this level of disaster before, in that region. Is this unprecidented?

Any idea what the figures were in terms of human lives lost when Kratatoa blew up south of Sumatra?