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Earthquakes

harlequin2005

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Aug 3, 2001
Messages
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[Emp edit: A general purpose earthquake thread.

Threads dealing with more specific topics:

Bam:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/bam.12536/

Afghanistan:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/afghan-earthquake-bombing-link.2529/

Manchester Quake:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/earthquake-in-manchester.5632/

Animals predicitng earthquakes:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/can-animals-predict-earthquakes.19601/


Earthquake prediction:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/earthquake-prediction-advances.12689/

SE Asian quake and tsunami:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/south-east-asian-earthquake-tsunami.19588/


Christmas/New Years earthquakes:
Link is obsolete and we do not have it in our current forums. Archived here from The Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050113103923/http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19573


Andes earthquakes and UFOs:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/andes-earthquakes-ufos.13532/


Earthquakes and civilisations:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/quake-theory.3157/


China's earthquake weapon:
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/does-china-have-an-earthquake-device.3289/

----------------
Earthquake Strikes Near Yucca Mountain

Site of proposed US Nuclear Waste dump...

Link
Mod Edit: Old link is broken. Archived link via The Wayback Machine here: https://web.archive.org/web/20020701042107/http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-14-03.asp


Original Text:-
Earthquake Strikes Near Yucca Mountain

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, June 14, 2002 (ENS) - An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter Scale was recorded early this morning deep beneath the desert near the site chosen by the Bush administration for the nation's permanent high-level nuclear waste repository.

Department of Energy (DOE) officials reported no damage or injuries at the Yucca Mountain repository site, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.


According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake's epicenter was located approximately 12 miles to the east of Yucca Mountain in what DOE officials say is "a known and studied geologic zone."

There was no damage to any Yucca Mountain Project facilities, structures or the underground Exploratory Studies Facilities, the DOE said. A public tour of Yucca Mountain will take place Saturday as scheduled.

A battle is going on in Congress and in the courts over whether Yucca Mountain is safe enough to store the nation's nuclear waste including spent nuclear fuel and Defense Department nuclear waste.

Most Nevada residents and Nevada elected officials of both political parties at all levels of government are opposed to the site on safety grounds.

Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, calls the earthquake "a wake-up call for the U.S. Senate," which will vote on whether to override Nevada's veto of the site later this summer.

"If anyone ever wondered about the wisdom of locating an underground radioactive dump site on an active fault line, this shows why," Berkley said today. "The Yucca Mountain project is inherently dangerous. The site was chosen based on political expediency, and not scientific merit."

"Not only does the proposed repository sit on a live fault line, but the area is known for volcanic activity and groundwater movement," Berkley said. "An earthquake disrupting a repository could not only cause a radioactive breach in its own right, but could open geologic fissures in the mountain, guiding rain and groundwater directly to the waste dump, and dramatically speeding the contamination of Western water tables.

The Bush administration and the nuclear industry say the radioactive waste will be safer transported to Yucca Mountain and stored there than if it remains at 103 nuclear plants and several Defense Department locations.


Energy Department officials hastened to assure the public that after 24 years of studies they are confident that Yucca Mountain could hold the readioactive waste safely, even in an earthquake.

"Yucca Mountain repository designs could withstand a local earthquake with 1,000 times more energy than the one reported this morning and a regional earthquake with 30,000 times more energy than the one reported this morning," the DOE said in a statement.

Citizen Alert, a Nevada anti-Yucca Mountain advocacy group, is not reassured. The group says earthquakes are just one more reason why Yucca Mountain is not safe enough to contain the nation's nuclear waste. "The area has a history of earthquakes, including one in 1932 that registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, the same magnitude as the San Francisco earthquake in 1989," the group points out.

In 1992, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred in the same vicinity, releasing energy about 30 times greater than this morning's earthquake. DOE officials said the 1992 earthquake "did not even dislodge boulders located on the slopes of Yucca Mountain."


Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights Reserved.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Maybe the DoE are hoping that the ground will open up and swallow all that nasty radioactive stuff for them, saving on storage and/or recycling costs :rolleyes:
 
Quakes from Italy to Alaska Unrelated, Experts Say

As linked from Fortean Times:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...d=753&e=1&u=/nm/20021104/sc_nm/quake_world_dc

OSLO (Reuters) - Earthquakes (news - web sites) from Italy to Pakistan that have killed at least 48 people in the past week are unconnected and merely part of the planet's routine and often devastating rumblings, seismologists said on Monday...


The US Geological Survey begs to differ.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/monitoring.html
 
That the Alaskan quake should affect Yellowstone isn't unusual. However I think the main point is that public attention has been drawn towards what is perceived to be a sudden - and worrying - increase in tectonic activity.

But if you start looking through the records you soon realise that there is absolutely nothing unusual happening, indeed this has been a fairly calm year tectonically compared to some years (for example, up to 3rd Nov this year there have been 12 quakes of mag 7+. This compares with 17 in the whole of last year and 23 in 1990).
 
Full Story Here


Scientists have managed to recreate deep earthquakes in the laboratory.
In nature, they occur hundreds of kilometres below the surface and scientists say that they should not actually happen.

Understanding deep faulting will significantly improve our knowledge of Earth science.

The results have also helped explain the origin of some of the largest and most violent earthquakes to occur on Earth.
 
Earthquake - East Coast USA

Story

Tremors of Trouble
Rare East Earthquakes Not as Lethal as the West Coast, But That Could Change

By Ned Potter



April 29 — It was 4:59 a.m. when people in seven states felt … something.

Actually, I thought it was like thunder rumbling or something," said a man in Georgia.
"And I'm like, God, what is going on?" said a woman in Alabama.

A newscaster in Chattanooga, Tenn., looked uncertainly at the ceiling lights and laughed.

"I think we're having an earthquake," he said.

An earthquake? In the southern Appalachians? Aren't they supposed to happen in California?

The U.S. Geological Survey confirms that the epicenter was near Fort Payne, Ala., right on the border with Georgia, and that the tremor measured 4.9 on the Richter scale. That's fairly mild, though it ties an Alabama record.

"Earthquakes do happen in the Eastern United States," said Harley Benz of the National Earthquake Information Center, run by the Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. He says they are rare, but when they do strike, they can spread 10 times farther than their California counterparts.


The New Madrid Fault

The strongest earthquakes ever in the continental United States did not happen in San Francisco or Los Angeles, but near New Madrid, Mo. A series of four violent quakes — enough to shift the course of the Mississippi River — struck from December 1811 to February 1812.

The New Madrid area (pronounced "New MAD-rid") was sparsely populated at the time. But geologists remark at how far the vibrations spread. The last and strongest one cracked buildings in Chicago, and did damage as far away as New York and Boston, 1,000 miles away.

"It was reported that it rang church bells in Charleston, South Carolina," said Benz.

Compare that to the 1994 Northridge earthquake near Los Angeles: billion damage all told, according to the California Office of Emergency Services — but it never reached the state line.

Old Eastern Rock

Why the difference? It has to do with the rock in the earth's crust beneath our feet.

In the east, the rock is older and more solid than in California. There are fault lines, but they tend to be deeper in the earth. The result is that vibrations are less frequent, but spread much more readily.

There is another implication: that America's Eastern cities, with their older buildings of brick and masonry, are not nearly as well prepared as California for a major earthquake.

Many of them have plans for hurricanes, and for terrorist attacks as well, but if the ground shifts, many of them face a small but real chance of disaster.
 
Quake in Central California

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/23/QUAKE.TMP

Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County -- An earthquake of estimated 6.5 magnitude shook the central coast of California on Monday, rattling residents from San Francisco to Los Angeles and killing at least two people in Paso Robles when a 19th century building collapsed.

At least 40 people were injured when the temblor struck 7 miles northeast of the coastal hamlet of San Simeon at 11:16 a.m. Swarms of aftershocks followed approaching magnitude 5. "There is the continuing possibility of strong aftershocks in the region," said William Ellswarth, a spokesman for the U.S. Geological Service.

By far the worst damage was in Paso Robles, a town of 26,000 people on Highway 101 about 24 miles southeast of the epicenter. Two women, one 19 years old and the other 55, were crushed when the roof of the historic Acorn Building slid off the collapsing structure and crashed onto the sidewalk. Their names were not released.

Two other people were pulled alive from the rubble of the building, said Terry Minshull, a spokesman for the Paso Robles Fire Department. In all, 46 buildings were damaged in a five-square-block area of downtown, police said.

Police spokesman Bob Adams said no one was missing.

"This was a very violent earthquake, the worst we've ever felt," he said. "We're in a state of subdued shock."

The quake lasted more than 30 seconds and was felt 165 miles north in San Francisco, where it caused the 20-story federal courthouse to sway for about half a minute. In Los Angeles, about 185 miles away, the activity was reported as a sustained rolling motion. People in the Central Valley cities of Fresno and Bakersfield also reported feeling the motion.

Northern San Luis Obispo County took the brunt of the shaking. "Throughout the county, we have broken small natural gas lines and broken water lines," said Ron Alsop, county emergency services coordinator.

Main roadways, including Highway 101, remained open, but some side roads were closed because of landslides, Alsop said. Along the freeway, gas stations were closed for lack of electricity to run the pumps. Tourists were evacuated from Hearst Castle on the coast, but initial checks revealed no damage. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, south of the epicenter, was unharmed and continued to operate.

The blacked-out gas stations were among 75,000 PG&E customers who lost power. By late afternoon, electricity had been restored to all but 23,000 customers, said PG&E spokesman Bill Roake.

At Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, the closest hospital to the epicenter, 22 people were admitted with minor cuts and scratches, according to Paul Posmoga, the hospital's chief financial officer.

Been through a few of these. Friends say this one was more than they had experienced before. 30 seconds is a long time to keep shaking...by then you wonder if it is ever going to stop!
 
I'm in LA at the moment and I must admit to not feeling a thing but I can say that the coyotes were making an unusual amount of noise last night.
Maybe they sensed a preshock?
 
Be nice to hear from the California people on the board. Mothfox (I think) is quite close to the epicenter.

My brother was going to school in Santa Cruz (basically ground zero) during the Loma Prieta quake in '89. He was seriously spooked by it. As one can imagine.
 
I asked on the Whinge thread if FA had felt it....well FA, whichever you read first........

Fallen Angel, did you feel it?

Interesting about the coyotes. I have no doubt that animals know "something is up" before earthquakes.

I have some good '89 quake anecdotes, but I will save those for another time/thread. :)

I wonder if anyone has measured the electromagnetic energy in the vicinity during/after a quake. I have experienced some odd feelings (irrational fear, feelings of a "presence" etc.) in the time following earthquakes.
 
inkedmagiclady said:
I wonder if anyone has measured the electromagnetic energy in the vicinity during/after a quake. I have experienced some odd feelings (irrational fear, feelings of a "presence" etc.) in the time following earthquakes.
Electromagnetic field effects and subsonics, IML. All that grinding and crushing as the fault settles down again.

You should keep an eye out for reports of the likes of ball lightning, UFO's and ghost sightings in the local press as well. ;)

Yes. If FA is out there, it's her duty as an FTMB'er to let us know she's okay! :)
 
There was a quake in Japan during the World Cup in 2002. I'd never experienced one before and it was the most unusual thing ever!

I think the epicentre was somewhere north of Tokyo and I was asleep in my bed in my hotel in Yokohama so it is amazing to think how it would have been in the epicentre.

I was asleep anyway but then kind of hald asleep felt the bed shaking from side to side, eventually the shaking woke me and dazed I jumped from my bed thinking 'My bed was shaking!'. I got up just as it stopped and was stood there waiting for my bed to do it again, I thought I'd gone mad! Quakes didn't cross my mind. It freaked me out as I was imagining some ghostly little dwarf was in my room shakin the bed.

It was only when I got to the media centre that I found out it had been a quake. There was also an unbeleivable storm one night. The media centre was just a big exhibition hall with a metal roof and some sort of hailstone/rain combo was battering the hell out of it and unearthly thunder and lightning was going off. From inside I thought a nuke had been set off in the Asian subcontinent, was quite scary!
 
There was another Xmas earthquake, which thankfully didn't hurt anyone.

It was in Antartica (sorry to have to bring up penguins again! :D )

Penguins escape huge earthquake
An earthquake on a remote Antarctic archipelago home to 850,000 King Penguins was the strongest on earth in four years, seismologists say.
The quake hit 400km (250 miles) off the Macquarie Islands on Friday, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

Penguins appear to have escaped a major disaster as the quake occurred deep under the sea, far from inhabited land.

There were no tsunamis, or large tidal waves, because the quake moved horizontally rather than vertically.

The tremors were felt in Tasmania, 1000km (600 miles) away, but because the epicentre was 10km underground, few observers noticed the initial quake.

Buildings on the islands shook for 15 seconds, seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski said.

"If this had happened underneath a population centre it would probably have destroyed a whole city," he said.

The quake was the biggest anywhere on earth since an 8.4-magnitude tremor off the coast of Peru in June 2001. That killed 74 people.

Friday's earthquake was caused by the collision of two of the major tectonic plates which make up the earth's crust layer, the Indo-Australian and the Pacific plates.

The last quake of a similar magnitude in the Macquarie region was in 1924, Mr Sinadinovski said.

Despite its size, 22 staff of the Australian Antarctic Division slept through the tremors.

"Nobody felt anything," a spokesman said.

10 BIGGEST QUAKES SINCE 1900
Chile, 1960: 9.5
Alaska, 1964: 9.2
Alaska, 1957: 9.1
Kamchatka, 1952: 9.0
Near Ecuador, 1906: 8.8
Alaska, 1965: 8.7
Tibet, 1950: 8.6
Kamchatka, 1923: 8.5
Indonesia, 1938: 8.5
Kuril Islands, 1963: 8.5
Source: US Geological Survey



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 123927.stm
 
Has anyone noted yet that it was a year to the day since the last big earthquake, in Bam, Iran? :shock:

That one wasn't anywhere near as big on the Richter scale, and didn't kill (m)any tourists, but the death toll was, IIRC, comparable to this one simply because the epicentre was in a city...

Surely there's material for some very scary theories there...

Something a friend of mine said: perhaps this was the revenge of the Little People for their grave discovery/desecration... :shock:
 
There's a site that's been trying to use a list (a very selective one, I hasten to add) about recent Asian/Pacific earthquakes on the 26th of the month, not just December. It's all nonsense, but it's been making the rounds...

Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Dangerous 26!

Just amazing to note that many of the earthquakes that appeared all over the world in the recent past were all on the date 26.

Year Month and Date Place of Earthquake

2001 January 26 Gujarat
2001 September 26 Chennai
2002 December 26 China
2003 January 26 Newzealand
2003 May 26 Japan / Taiwan
2003 September 26 Japan(Hokaido)
2003 October 26 China (Sunsu)
2003 December 26 Iran
2004 December 26 South east Asia



http://vallabhi.blogspot.com/2004/12/dangerous-26.html
 
Ecuador trembles after hundreds of tremors

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 Posted: 1943 GMT (0343 HKT)


QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) -- Hundreds of tremors off the coast of Ecuador in the past 11 days have sparked fears that a bigger quake could strike soon.

"This isn't normal," the director of Geophysics Institute at the National Polytechnic School, Hugo Yepez, told Reuters on Monday, "This area is capable of producing big earthquakes. Very big earthquakes."

About 320 tremors of more than 4.0 on the Richter scale have shaken the Pacific Ocean off the port of Manta since January 20.

So far no one has been reported hurt but some small fishing villages have seen damages. An earthquake measured at 7.9 on the Richter scale battered the Pacific city of Guayaquil in 1942, although fragmentary reports from the time did not mention casualties.

The shape of Ecuador's coastline would prevent the formation of a tsunami like the one which smashed into parts of Asia in December, experts say.


-------------------
Copyright 2005 Reuters.

Source
 
Bolt may have triggered 'tremor'

By staff writers and AAP
02feb05

A LIGHTNING bolt may be behind reports of an earth tremor in Melbourne early this morning.

The earth may have moved for residents but experts say they did not feel a thing.

Geoscience Australia, the national body which measures earthquakes, said there was no evidence of an earth tremor in Melbourne, despite radio reports of one this morning.

A spokesman for electricity supplier Powercor said the company's theory was that the rumblings, reported to have happened about 3.08am, might have something to do with a lightning bolt that struck a power pole in Melton in Melbourne's west.

The lightning blew the 6m pole and an attached transformer to bits, leaving nothing more than a stump, the spokesman said.

"It's a real freak of nature event, we haven't really had it happen before," he said.

"If the nature of what's left of our power pole is anything to go by – it's stuffed, it's just a stump – then it could have been that."

Asked how the impact would have travelled so far across Melbourne, the spokesman said: "I'm fascinated by that".

Geoscience Australia said it was possible a sonic boom caused the shaking.

Given the large number of residents who reported feeling a rumbling shortly after 3am (AEDT), a Geoscience Australia spokesman said it appeared something had occurred but no one was sure what.

"There's no doubt something's happened," he said.

The spokesman said so far there were no seismic readings showing a tremor, but experts would continue to monitor the readings.

He said a small localised tremor may have occurred, spanning about 20 km and measuring no more than roughly 1.3 in magnitude.

The shaking also could have been caused by a sonic boom, from a low flying high-speed aircraft.

A Defence Department spokesman said he was unsure if any planes were flying over Melbourne last night but would investigate.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Terry Ryan said there was no record of thunder or lightning in Melbourne last night.

Residents have been calling Melbourne radio stations ABC and 3AW, saying they felt a tremor in the middle of the night.

A 3AW spokeswoman said the station had had received an "overwhelming" number of calls from right across Melbourne to as far south-west as Geelong.

Source
 
The US deploying earthquake weapons again???

Iran quake kills at least 270

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Posted: 1416 GMT (2216 HKT)


(CNN) -- Rescuers in central Iran searched for survivors Tuesday after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake flattened villages and killed at least 270 people.

Iranian officials told state-run television that at least 950 people were injured in the quake, which struck near Zarand, a city of about 135,000 people in Kerman province. (Map)

Provincial officials told Iranian television that about 40 villages were affected, with seven more than 90 percent destroyed and 25 others more than half destroyed.

The governor of Zarand said his city was not heavily damaged. The quake killed 20 people there, and about 280 others were taken to hospitals, officials said.

"The number of killed people may be raised," said M.J. Fadayee, director of emergency efforts in Kerman province. "We are still working to find the people. Unfortunately, we will have more."

The Iranian government declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.

A magnitude 6.4 is classified as a strong earthquake by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake, which struck about 5:55 a.m. local time (9:25 p.m. Monday ET), sent panicked residents pouring into the streets. Motorcycles were navigating crowded avenues and transporting the injured to hospitals.

Some roads already have been washed away by rain, which is expected to get heavier later Tuesday, officials said. A cold night has been forecast.

Kari Egge, a UNICEF representative in Iran, said the rain had stopped, however, and a bright sun was warming the area during daylight hours. She was in the village of Dohan, which she said was "completely flattened."

"For the time being, we are still digging around in the rubble," she said. The atmosphere is "confused ... a lot of people are walking around in the rubble" looking for the site of their homes or hoping to find a family member. "The damage is such that it's hard to find anything."

Egge said that survivors likely would be taken to a nearby village, where structures were still standing, for the night but that temporary shelter would be needed shortly.

At least two villages were inaccessible at first because of mudslides and mountainous terrain, but officials told Iranian television that rescuers had reached one and were nearing the second.

In one village, a large group was attending a religious service at a mosque when the quake hit, destroying the facility, authorities told the network. The extent of casualties was unknown.

Video from a village outside the provincial capital of Kerman, aired on the state network, showed structures with heavy damage and collapsed walls as well as corpses covered in blankets. Residents were digging through the rubble using shovels.

Helicopters were sent to help transport the injured to Kerman and help identify ways to reach less accessible areas.

Officials told state-run television that crews were working to restore power.

The Iranian government has not appealed to the international community for help, with officials saying the situation is under control and telling Iranian television they hope to wrap up rescue and recovery efforts by the time dark falls Tuesday. Some relief flights had been started from Tehran, state-run television reported.

Initial reports indicate the epicenter of the temblor was near the villages of Khanouk, Islamabad and Mottaharabad, state television said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Kerman at a depth of about 26 miles (42 kilometers).

Zarand is about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from Bam, where a 6.6 magnitude quake in December 2003 killed at least 26,000 people and injured another 30,000.

But Zarand, about 460 miles (740 kilometers) southeast of Tehran, is in a more sparsely populated area than Bam.

The Bam earthquake was also much closer to the Earth's surface.

A deeper earthquake allows "more time for the energy to dissipate, and that means less intense shaking [on the surface]," said David Applegate, a senior adviser to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Source
 
Earthquake in Japan Kills 1, Injures 400

FUKUOKA, Japan Mar 20, 2005 — A powerful earthquake jolted southern Japanese islands on Sunday, killing an elderly woman, injuring 400 people and triggering landslides.

In a region still jittery from the devastating Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, authorities evacuated half the residents of a tiny island near the epicenter and warned of a tsunami but later cancel the alert.

The magnitude-7.0 temblor, which hit west of Kyushu Island at 10:53 a.m., was centered at an unusually shallow depth of 5.5 miles below the ocean floor, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. At least one aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2 was recorded.

Minutes after the shaking began, the agency warned of the possibility of a 20-inch tsunami triggered by the seismic activity. Such waves can grow to towering heights as they approach land, and authorities cautioned residents near the water to move to higher ground. But the agency withdrew the warning after about an hour.

"There may be some disturbance of the ocean's surface, but we aren't worried about tsunami damage," said Masahiro Yamamoto of the Meteorological Agency. He predicted strong aftershocks up to magnitude-6 would continue.

On Dec. 26, a magnitude-9.0 quake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated Asian and African coastlines in nearly a dozen nations, killing at least 174,000 people.

The worst damage from Sunday's quake was nearest to the epicenter, on tiny Genkai island, where the shaking touched off landslides and leveled homes. About 120 Japanese troops flew to the island just west of Kyushu to offer food and medical aid and help evacuate more than 400 of the 850 residents to Kyushu.

Nearby in Fukuoka city, a 75-year-old woman died after a section of a stone wall fell on her, a Fukuoka prefectural government spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

At least 400 were injured by the quake and treated at hospitals, public broadcaster NHK television reported. Most of the injured were in hardest-hit Fukuoka prefecture on western Kyushu, 560 miles southwest of Tokyo. Authorities in Fukuoka confirmed 107 injuries, according to the prefectural government's Web site. Some were struck by toppling cabinets or shattered glass, or burned by stoves.

Source
 
Weird:

Last Update: Monday, March 21, 2005. 7:36pm (AEDT)

Rice porridge ritual predicted Japan quake

An annual ritual at a 1,200-year-old Shinto shrine predicted a major earthquake in southern Japan five days before the tremor rocked the region, a priest said.

In the fortune-telling ceremony using rice porridge, the Chiriku Hachimangu shrine in Miyaki town in the Kyushu region warned on March 15 of a quake even though the area is historically less prone to tremors.

The shrine offers a bowl of porridge to the altar every February 26 and takes it back on March 15.

A man from a family that has been been telling fortunes for generations then examines the surface to make predictions.

"It was good porridge this year with a shiny surface and not much mould ... but I saw a rare crack," chief priest Masahiro Higashi told AFP.

After receiving the forecast from the fortune-teller, the priest told residents on March 15 the upcoming year would be mild with an average harvest.

"But be careful and be prepared for earthquakes," he added in the televised forecast.

"I think people were surprised to see the prediction come true but I myself was also surprised," he said.

Sunday's quake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, killed one woman, injured hundreds and damaged more than 600 houses in Kyushu.

Source
 
EARTHQUAKE HITS INDONESIA

An earthquake measuring 8.2 has hit Indonesia - 880 miles north west of the country's capital Jakarta.

The earthquake is reported to have triggered tsunami warnings.


The quake struck in the sea off the coast of Sumatra about 1609 GMT, according to the US Geological Survey.

A USGS spokeswoman said it hit 125 miles northwest off Sibolga, Sumatra.

It was close to where a nine magnitude quake triggered a devastating Tsunami in Asia on Boxing Day.

USGS Spokesman Don Blakeman said: "Certainly evacuations should be occuring, I hope they are."
 
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/wmsg
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1629Z 28 MAR 2005

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1610Z 28 MAR 2005
COORDINATES - 2.3 NORTH 97.1 EAST
LOCATION - NORTHERN SUMATERA INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 8.5

EVALUATION

THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC. NO TSUNAMI THREAT
EXISTS TO COASTLINES IN THE PACIFIC.

WARNING... THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A WIDELY
DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI IN THE OCEAN OR SEAS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE.
AUTHORITIES IN THOSE REGIONS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY
AND TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. THIS ACTION SHOULD INCLUDE EVACUATION
OF COASTS WITHIN A THOUSAND KILOMETERS OF THE EPICENTER AND CLOSE
MONITORING TO DETERMINE THE NEED FOR EVACUATION FURTHER AWAY.


THIS CENTER DOES NOT HAVE SEA LEVEL GAUGES OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC
SO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT OR MEASURE A TSUNAMI IF ONE WAS
GENERATED. AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE DANGER HAS PASSED IF NO
TSUNAMI WAVES ARE OBSERVED IN THE REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER
WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE BULLETINS
FOR ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.
:(
 
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4388579.stm
Huge quake hits Indonesian coast
A major quake in the Indian Ocean has hit the coast of the Indonesian tsunami-hit island of Sumatra, triggering an alert across the region.
The quake was given a magnitude of 8.2 by the US Geological Survey who have warned it could cause tidal waves.

The epicentre was located at about 200 km (125 miles) off the mainland.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake could cause a "widely destructive tsunami" and it was felt as far away as Malaysia.

"Authorities in those regions should be aware of this possibility and take immediate action," the center said in a statement on its website.

It comes three months after a major earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 December caused major damage and killed tens of thousands of people in the region.

Russ Evans, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, told the BBC the Boxing Day earthquake had a magnitude of 9.5.

He says the latest quake was almost certainly an after-shock from the first one and that a tsunami was certainly possible, but on a smaller scale.

'I heard my neighbours screaming'

The quake struck between the Sumatran cities of Padang and Medan at around 2315 local time (1615 GMT) and lasted up to three minutes, said Ramlan of Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Office.

Power blackouts and major panic ensued, local officials told AFP news agency.

The quake was felt across the region with people in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, some 500km away, evacuating high-rise buildings and running out into the streets.

"I was getting ready for bed, and suddenly, the room started shaking," said Kuala Lumpur resident Jessie Chong.

"I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbours screaming and running out."

Thailand, which was also hit by the 26 December disaster, has issued an tsunami alert.
 
No sign of a tsunami and the experts say we should be getting reports of it by now but they are issuing all sorts of warnings in the surrounding areas.
 
Indian Ocean braced for tsunami

The Indian Ocean is on tsunami alert after a quake off the coast of Sumatra, the Indonesian island that bore the brunt of the 26 December disaster.
It struck just before midnight local time, with an estimated magnitude of 8.2, and caused widespread panic.

There were unconfirmed reports of casualties from the tremor as people left coastal areas of Sumatra.

Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India are also on alert after forecasts of a "widely destructive tsunami".

The quake struck between the Sumatran cities of Padang and Medan at around 2315 local time (1615 GMT) and lasted up to three minutes, according to Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Office.

I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbours screaming and running out
Jessie Chong
Kuala Lumpur resident

Its epicentre was located at about 200km (125 miles) off the Sumatran mainland.

Most people were in bed at the time and there were no immediate reports of damage, says the BBC's Tim Johnstone in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Reports from Banda Aceh say thousands came out into the streets, fearful of collapsing houses, while an official quoted by Reuters news agency spoke of "dozens" killed on the island of Nias.

Communications were swamped, although some mobile phone messages were getting through.

'I heard my neighbours screaming'

The 26 December tsunami caused major damage and killed tens of thousands of people in states across the region.

Russ Evans, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, told the BBC that Monday's tremor quake was almost certainly an after-shock of the earlier quake, which had a magnitude of 9.

A new tsunami was certainly possible, he said, but on a smaller scale.

The quake was felt across the region with people in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, some 500km away, evacuating high-rise buildings and running out into the streets.

"I was getting ready for bed, and suddenly, the room started shaking," said Kuala Lumpur resident Jessie Chong.

"I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbours screaming and running out."

Thailand and India, badly hit by the 26 December disaster, issued tsunami alerts while Sri Lanka evacuated coastal areas.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 388579.stm
Published: 2005/03/28 18:56:06 GMT

© BBC MMV
 
Two aftershocks of magnitude 6.0 and 6.7 have struck following the magnitude 8.7 quake that occurred earlier on, I can't find this on any online news reports yet, epicentre locations, time of quake etc. are on the USGS earthquake site.

USGS source
 
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