earthquake moves islands and rattles earth's orbit

[cityboi]

Is it the end of the world? not quite yet but this news does indicate that times are going to get even more rough. Just imagine what would happen if the earth were rattled off it axis. The changes would be so dramatic that it could be a slow extinction of the human race. That is if the dramatic increase in earthquakes dont kill us all. It is believed that undersea earthquakes caused Noah's flood which wiped out all of man kind.

Quake rattled Earth orbit, changed map of Asia: US geophysicist

Mon Dec 27, 8:33 PM ET Asia - AFP

LOS ANGELES, (AFP) - An earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said.

AFP Photo

The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Sumatra island Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 meters (66 feet), according to one expert.

"That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP.

"Based on seismic modeling, some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 meters. That is a lot of slip."

The northwestern tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the southwest by around 36 meters (120 feet), Hudnut said.

In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said.

"We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," Hudnut said.

Another USGS (news - web sites) research geophysicist agreed that the Earth would have got a "little jog," and that the islands off Sumatra would have been moved by the quake.

However, Stuart Sipkin, of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely that the islands off Sumatra had risen higher out of the sea than they had moved laterally.

"In in this case, the Indian plate dived below the Burma plate, causing uplift, so most of the motion to the islands would have been vertical, not horizontal."

The tsunamis unleashed by the fourth-biggest earthquake in a century have left at least 23,675 people dead in eight countries across Asia and as far as Somalia in East Africa.

The tsunamis wiped out entire coastal villages and pulled beach-goers out to sea.

The International Red Cross estimated that up to one million people have been displaced by the natural calamity.

[Spartan]

I can't believe that this is the first thread baout that earthquake. Its interesting though. I had heard that made Earth wobble on its axis, but I didn't konw it moved some islands! That kinda of power is certainly staggering.

[monsoon]

[wolfdawg54]

The Pacific Rim has an Tsunami warning system that could be used to evacuate people in case something similar happened there.  There is no such system in the Indian ocean, and even if they did know, the countries affected by this disaster never implemented any kind of emergency response system. 

Even more disturbing there is also no such system for the Atlantic.  Imagine this coming in on the East Coast of North America.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is always a possibility and a scary one at that. Isn't the egde of the tectonic plate we (Eastern US coastline) are sitting on almost by Africa? A very tragic story as well.

[Cotuit]

[KoRn_Snake]

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one emoticon:

[Spartan]

Even more disturbing there is also no such system for the Atlantic.  Imagine this coming in on the East Coast of North America.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The type of fault in the Atlantic is not one that is typically condusive to large earthquakes, so this is not really necessary.

[Cotuit]

The faults that are off the east coast don't general produce quakes that produce tsunamis, but the Caribbean is vulnerable. The east coast is also vulnerable to landslide generated tsunamis. Newfoundland was hit by a tsunami cause by land collapsing off of The Grand Banks in 1929. The east coast of the US could be hit within 20 minutes of a landslide along the continental shelf.

[Christian]

76 901 is so far comfirmed dead, but they fear the numbers can be as high as 130 000. The changes for a disease is large, so the Thai authorities may start to burn the bodies before they is to be indetify. Norway and the Scandinavian countries want to stop this, because we still miss about 3-4000 tourists, 100 has been comfirmed dead and is from Sweden (52), Norway (20), Denmark (13) and Finland (10).

This may become the largest disaster in Norwegian history, or since the last tsunami that destroyed a whole fjord in 1936. Over 150 has been killed of tsunamies since 1900 in Norway, and many more since 1800. What cause tsunamies here is not earthquakes but huge mountains collapsing into the fjords, creating a huge wave which destroyes the whole fjord. These waves is huge, because of the fjord is not large, but deep. The waves after the three largest tsunamies in 1905, 1913 and 1936 was from 50m to 100m tall.

[Cotuit]

The Newfoundland tsunami in 1929 was especially destructive because of the fjord-like shape of some of the coastline there. I do not believe there were many (if any) deaths because of how sparse the population is in Newfoundland.

[Spartan]

The faults that are off the east coast don't general produce quakes that produce tsunamis, but the Caribbean is vulnerable. The east coast is also vulnerable to landslide generated tsunamis. Newfoundland was hit by a tsunami cause by land collapsing off of The Grand Banks in 1929. The east coast of the US could be hit within 20 minutes of a landslide along the continental shelf.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A guy on the news said that situation is unlikely because the landslides there tend to break up as they fall down, as opposed to falling as one very large mass (like in Norway) which is what causes the tsunamis. Its like dropping a brick into a bathtub or dropping alot of small pebbles. He did say that the Carribean was the most vulnerable, and that could effect the southern USA, particularly Florida.

I suspect that is an example of creating news-drama where there is none, because they kind of cut that guy off, and pressed him for the answer they wanted (at least it seemed that way to me). You know how all of the news networks like to create fake drama.

[cityboi]

The faults that are off the east coast don't general produce quakes that produce tsunamis, but the Caribbean is vulnerable. The east coast is also vulnerable to landslide generated tsunamis. Newfoundland was hit by a tsunami cause by land collapsing off of The Grand Banks in 1929. The east coast of the US could be hit within 20 minutes of a landslide along the continental shelf.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree, but I think that the pattern of nature could change at some point in the future just like el nino causes weather patterns to change. And who knows, maybe faults along the Atlantic Ocean and east coast seabord could one day become as active as the Pacific. Unlike the weather forcast earthquakes are unpredictable like volcanic eruptions. If faults along the Atlantic Ocean ever become active we could see a similar catastrophy in the eastern United States. Then major cities like New York, Boston and Miami would be really concerned because those cities are right on the water.

[Cotuit]

There was a large quake off the coast of Massachusetts in colonial times that was said to have rang church bells up and down the east coast.

[monsoon]

[Fruit Cove]

is the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki considered modern times?

[BrandonTO416]

This is certainly one of the worst natural disasters on record now. So sad to see the destruction.

[M. Brown]

It is believed that undersea earthquakes caused Noah's flood which wiped out all of man kind.

God caused it.