8.9 Quake in Indonesia. Tsunami warnings given to 28 countries

That sucks

 

Got a mate who's in Thailand just posted on Facebook the whole town has been moved to higher ground. Hopefully it's only a small one, small waves have hit some island which means there's going to be sort of wave hit the mainlands.

 

I'm following the situation and initial reports are that the type of earthquake, mostly lateral moving, might not cause a bad tsunami. The last news I am seeing is that there might be a tsunami. There isn't much news coming from the area closest to the epicenter in Aceh as electricity is down.

 

Praying for the people over there. Earthquakes are awful. I was caught in the Northridge one in 1994. Thought I was a goner.

 

Scary situation - afraid of hearing the stories in the next few hours from aftershocks. Prayers for everyone in that area.

 

Man, there have been a lot of really big earthquakes over the last 5 years or so.

 

Was it a dud?

Tsunami watch lifted for most of Indian Ocean. link

(AP) BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Two massive earthquakes triggered back-to-back tsunami warnings for Indonesia on Wednesday, sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles. There were no signs of deadly waves, however, or serious damage, and a watch for much of the Indian Ocean was lifted after a few hours.

Women and children were crying in Aceh province, where memories are still raw of a 2004 tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province alone. Others screamed "God is great" as they poured from their homes or searched frantically for separated family members.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was 270 miles from Aceh's provincial capital. The tsunami watch that followed from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii advised countries all along the rim of the Indian Ocean, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa, that a tsunami could be generated.

The only wave, however, was less than 30 inches high, rolling to Indonesia's coast.

But just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit.

"We just issued another tsunami warning," Prih Harjadi, from Indonesia's geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.

His countrymen were told to stay clear of western coasts.

Again, the threat quickly passed.

 

A friend of mine is currently living in Thailand near the ocean as a diving teacher, hope he's alright and that there won't be a big aftermath.

 

There are so many earthquakes in that area. How do people live there?

 

Some people dont have a choice to choose where they want to live

 

I realize that, wrong context though. I meant how do people live there, as in how do people deal with that everyday?
Now if I said why then yeah... :grin:

 

They just ignore it. I live in DFW now= tornadoes. When I lived in Galveston = Hurricanes.

 

From some smart guy on Reddit...
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This appears to have been a strike-slip earthquake (focal mechanism). It is unlikely that there will be a devastating tsunami.

edit: I should explain further. Tsunamis are generated by displacement of water. In the case of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, it was a megathrust which displaced a lot of water vertically, like so. This earthquake was almost purely strike-slip. Strike-slip earthquakes are completely horizontal--there is no vertical displacement. Since the vertical displacement of this earthquake will be relatively limited, the amount of water displaced and therefore tsunami is also likely to be limited.

edit2: I should further note that a devastating tsunami is not likely, at least not like the 2004 one, but I do not know exactly how large a tsunami this earthquake may generate. To generate a tsunami, you must have vertical uplift of water. It is not impossible for strike-slip earthquakes to generate vertical uplift of water, however. If the strike-slip movement is towards the continental slope, there may still be some vertical offset. Imagine that the earthquake occurs in an area with 100m depth water, and the strike-slip motion is towards shallower water and land. The huge 100m stack of that water lying above the epicenter then moves towards land, too, where the water may only be 80m deep. Suddenly you've just produced 20m of vertical offset because you moved a 100m deep stack of water to an area that's only 80m deep. The strike-slip motion appears to be in ESE oblique against Indonesia, though, so I still doubt a devastating tsunami.

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/s42xj/87_earthquake_outside_indonesia/c4ax0jp

 

Thank god there won't be any tsunamis, I don't even want to think about the potential disaster anymore..

 

yeah, my bad, misunderstood.

 

The damages in Aceh, Indonesia, are very limited. Mostly broken windows and such, but nothing serious. Thankfully their houses and buildings are new (from the 2004 tsunami complete wipe out) and are designed to withstand earthquakes.

It's the potential tsunami that's scary.