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| Thread: Earthquake! |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · NEXT» |
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LordZXZX
Famous Hero
Overfished
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posted December 27, 2004 12:33 AM |
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Earthquake!
I'm not sure if you all know about this, but a giant earthquake in Sumatra has shaken up most of south and southeast Asia. They say that over 4000+ ppl may have been killed. The quake had sent giant tsunamis to India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and nearly flooded the entire Maldives Islands. India and Sri Lanka were the hardest hit; over 1800 people may have died in each of those countries. 500+ people died in Indonesia, and 400+ people may have died in Thailand. And there are many more missing.
My condolences to those victims
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Daddy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
and why not.
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posted December 27, 2004 12:44 AM |
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Again Nature strikes radically..
And many people will not encounter the silence after the storm.....
My condolences, too.
Death might be a nice thing in H4 but in rl surely not...
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Shiva
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted December 27, 2004 01:35 AM |
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What a tragedy. I know someone who was in Thailand, I hope they are ok. I saw a few pics on TV, whole towns wiped out.
Nature always puts man/woman in his/her place
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted December 27, 2004 09:24 AM |
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Last news i heard this morning were:
At least 15.000 people died and 1.000.000 lost their home.
What a tragedy...
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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LordZXZX
Famous Hero
Overfished
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posted December 27, 2004 12:39 PM |
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It says now the death toll has risen to 20,000
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted December 28, 2004 03:38 AM |
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Edited By: Consis on 27 Dec 2004
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Put Into Perspective
Tsunami: The Japanese word means "harbor wave" from tsu "harbor" + nami "wave".
People reading this need to understand what this is all about. I've done some light reading and so I'll try to write a condensed form of the scope of this disaster.
First of all, I must re-iterate a point that bort once made. It isn't really fair to only pay attention to disasters that kill many people while ignoring those that take the lives of only a few. bort once said, "how does one compare tragedies? How can we compare which is worse, the life lost from a few or from a thousand?" I think it's important for people to look at something like this with eyes unclouded by personal chivalrous moral relativism.
Not long ago, there was a terrible earthquake in Iran that killed over 10,000 people. To this day, I can't comprehend how that many lives were lost over something like a 6-7 point earthquake. But then I read about this recent earthquake deep beneath the ocean underneath all the pressure of the miles of water resting on top and then underneath the rock under all of that. I learned that this particular earthquake wasn't even the strongest of this area in the last 200 years. In fact, giant quakes also rocked the area in 1797, 1833 and 1861. And a magnitude 8.0 earthquake on the island's(Sri Lanka) southern tip was the most deadly tremor of 2000, causing at least 103 fatalities. As you can clearly see, stronger earthquakes have occured and less people have died.
I've also been looking at the estimates for the kind of power behind this event. The closest estimate to the relative power behind this much earth and ocean being moved was equated to something like a hundred thousand atomic bombs being detonated under the earth's crust.
Now after all that I've written you must understand one most important fact about tsunamis. Air pressure(barometric) does not fluctuate(drop or raise), the clouds don't get dark, thunder does not billow, and the ocean remains as it is until the very last moment. To give you an idea of how fast this devastation moves, from where the epicenter(the start) occured the wave traveled close to 1500 miles in a little over 2 hours. There is no warning, no defense, and no escape if you find yourself in plain sight of the wave. It cannot be stopped by any means man/woman kind now posess. All you can do is hope you're out of range and then help with the aftermath.
That's what has only just happened this past sunday. Here is my favorite link to an abundance of information on tsunamis:
 http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:KNbt506hecYJ:www.geolsoc.org.uk/pdfs/Tsunami.pdf+history+of+tsunamis&hl=en
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Roses Are Red And So Am I
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Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
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posted December 28, 2004 04:31 PM |
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Death toll climbs to 44,000.
As search and rescue teams comb through the affected areas, whole towns of 10,000 people have been discovered to have been wiped out. As of today (Tuesday) the death toll has climbed to over 44,000 humans.
This has to be one of the hugest natural catastrophies in human history. At least in my recollection.
I hope/wish that Bush and leaders from other countries will hold special addresses to publicly coordinate condolences and ask their constitutencies to contribute to the aid going to the affected countries. If every adult American would contribute just $5.00 this country alone could come up with a billion-dollar aid contribution.
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I have menopause and a handgun. Any questions?
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted December 28, 2004 05:30 PM |
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Edited By: Consis on 28 Dec 2004
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True
Quote:
This has to be one of the hugest natural catastrophies in human history.
This is true for as far back as any written record of man/woman kind exists.
The last may have been the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and what it did to Pompeii/Herculaneum. And before that, if it truly happened, the flood of Noah. I will check to see when the last time Mount Fuji erupted also but nothing else comes to my mind at the moment.
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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I
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Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
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posted December 28, 2004 06:23 PM |
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Yes, Pompeii also came to my mind as the only comparable catastrophe as well Consis.
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Shiva
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted December 28, 2004 06:56 PM |
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Edited By: Shiva on 28 Dec 2004
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Just off hand I can think of Karakatoa, a volcano blowing
up in the same region as this tsunami sometime in the late 19th century. Read more here.
Also , I believe there have
been a few earthquakes in China
that have killed almost 1,000,000 people.
So far, I have seen the US
government pledge $15,000,000 and the Canadian $5,000,000. And $80 billion for Iraq? gawd..
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ratmonky
Famous Hero
Abu Hur Ibn Rashka
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posted December 28, 2004 07:06 PM |
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yes, it's a horrible catastrophe, but there have been even worse earthquakes in 20th century.
here are some of them:
July 27, 1976 China, Tangshan 255,000 (official), 650,000 (unofficial) casualties
May 22, 1927 China, near Xining 200,000 casualties
December 16, 1920 China, Gansu 200,000 casualties
September 1, 1923 Japan, Kwanto 143,000 casualties
October 5, 1948 USSR (Turkmenistan, Ashgabat) 110,000 casualties
May 31, 1970 Peru 66,000 casualties
and here are more recent earthquakes with many casualties:
2003 December 26 Bam, IRAN
Magnitude: 6,6. About 31,000 people killed, 30,000 injured, 75,600 homeless and 85 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed in the Bam area. Damage estimated at 32.7 million U.S. dollars.
and the one that happened in my hometown in Armenia when i was 5 years old. it's my scariest childhood memory.
1988 December 7 Spitak, ARMENIA, USSR.
Magnitude: 6,8. At least 25,000 people killed, 19,000 injured and 500,000 homeless in the Leninakan-Spitak-Kirovakan area of northern Armenia, USSR. More than 20 towns and 342 villages were affected and 58 of them were completely destroyed. Damage totalled 16.2 billion U.S. dollars.
But none of these earthquakes has been as strong as the sumatran one.
My condolences to the victims
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Dies illa, dies irae,
Calamitatis et miseriae.
Requiem aeternum
Dona eis, dona eis Domine.
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Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
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posted December 28, 2004 08:12 PM |
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Wow. I am embarassed to say I had not recalled or known about any of these figures!!!
Thanks for this information Ratmonkey. So sorry you had to live through one of the awful experiences. Glad you're still with us.
Also, Shiva, I believe the request by the State Dept. to Congress for Iraq funds has risen to $200,000 billion now.
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Shiva
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted December 28, 2004 08:31 PM |
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Edited By: Shiva on 28 Dec 2004
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a quote from an article:
"The United States provided an
initial $15 million mostly channeled
through the International Federation of
the Red Cross and Red Crescent, plus
logistical support for aid efforts.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Agency for
International Development added $20 million
for the earthquake relief, a White House
spokesman said."
And heres a list: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001439.html.
Note the one in 1556 in China.
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Svarog
Honorable
Supreme Hero
statue-loving necrophiliac
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posted December 29, 2004 02:45 AM |
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I heard today that the quake managed to alter the planets rotation. :0
It's the biggest disaster in my time, thats for sure. 15 million is nothing compared to the several billions of $ as its estimated. 15 million$ is the anual profit of a single avarage US company. One Hollywood blockbuster can earn this much in the first week in cinemas, in US only that is.
Certainly, much more help must follow.
And consis, from what i've heard these days, warning and evacuation in this kind of disasters is possible, but the countries didnt have the necessary equipment and logistics to alert the people living on the seaside.
So many people...
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The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted December 29, 2004 03:14 AM |
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Edited By: Consis on 28 Dec 2004
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Hmm,
Quote:
warning and evacuation in this kind of disasters is possible, but the countries didnt have the necessary equipment and logistics to alert the people living on the seaside.
I think I see where you misunderstood me. I did not mean everywhere in the world. I was talking specifically about this region. In fact, I believe those of us in most of the northern Pacific region have ocean-floor seismic warning sensors that relay tectonic activity of this nature to our local watch centers for when these things happen.
You are absolutely correct, as I wish I had specified earlier, to say that they had poor means of communicating the danger from the seismologists to the government to the people living in the danger zones.
Here in the U.S. 1 out of every 10 people(I'm guessing here) carries a portable phone/cell phone with some kind of sattellite link. Word of the danger would spread very quickly. This country is definitely a player in the information age. But I don't know if Sri Lanka or Sumatra are as advanced as many other industrialized nations are.
In fact, I'd wager that if the people of these countries had put more focus on technological advances then much less people could have died. I'm talking about small advances too, things like fiber-optic phone lines, sattellite-linked wireless communication, computerized warning systems, etc. They don't need to construct and design supersonic jetliners, only better forms of communication. Such is the price, in my opinion, for falling behind the global power curve of technology. Such would be the entire world's fate if we all simply decided to let our brilliant minds slip into ignorance and apathy when the next meteor decides to strike this planet.
Well not me, and certainly not my children. I teach them to always try to expound and exceed their own knowledge. This philosophy could save the human race from extinction by N.E.A.'s in the future.
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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I
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Svarog
Honorable
Supreme Hero
statue-loving necrophiliac
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posted December 29, 2004 03:30 AM |
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Quote:
Such is the price, in my opinion, for falling behind the global power curve of technology.Quote:
If you had a country of hundreds of million people to lead, and most of them were very poor, weak health and education system etc, I think the money-consuming technological race would be the last thing you'd had in mind.
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The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted December 29, 2004 04:19 AM |
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Perhaps For You But Not Me
Quote:
If you had a country of hundreds of million people to lead, and most of them were very poor, weak health and education system etc, I think the money-consuming technological race would be the last thing you'd had in mind.
Say this to Archimedes at the time of the Roman empire and I'm sure he'd disagree as well.
It isn't a 'money-consuming technogical race'. In my opinion, it is that which seperates man from beast. The ability to invent something that will save the lives of countless others is in and of itself a great achievment, however expensive the monetary requirement. Can you put a price on saving the life of a human being?
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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I
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Khaelo
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Underwater
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posted December 29, 2004 07:17 AM |
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Edited By: Khaelo on 29 Dec 2004
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agreeing with Svarog
Quote:
In fact, I'd wager that if the people of these countries had put more focus on technological advances then much less people could have died. I'm talking about small advances too, things like fiber-optic phone lines, sattellite-linked wireless communication, computerized warning systems, etc.
These are not small advances, nor are they cheap. Fiber optics? Satellites? General warning systems for thousands of people? And don't forget the infrastructure for evacuation, which would not only have to be constructed but also maintained. A system like this would be unbelievably expensive. As far as I can tell, the countries which were hit hardest have limited resources and many problems. Many of these issues, such as health care, also concern human lives. Preparing for a series of tsunamis the like of which hasn't been seen since Krakatoa is not at the top of the priority list. In my opinion, the lack of warning systems doesn't indicate a lack of intellectual rigor, search for knowledge, interest in technology, and so on. It's a resource problem. These nations had other things on their minds, many of which are also issues of life and death, and most of which seemed much more urgent before this once-a-century event hit.
And, for the record, Archimedes was Greek, and he died before the Roman Empire existed. Time-wise, try the Roman Republic. 
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 Cleverly
disguised as a responsible adult
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted December 29, 2004 08:41 AM |
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Edited By: Consis on 29 Dec 2004
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How Insulting!
Have you not read my thread about Archimedes? You insult me with your re-iterations of this great man. I know a great deal more than your one-liners ever could. And I know Svarog is probably as familiar as I am with this great Greek(as I had already known) inventor. That's why I mentioned him. I believe Svarog to be especially keen to Greek history and mythology. As I recall reading one of his posts in the past, he is quite taken by this particular culture! So spare me your ridiculous trivia one-liners thank you very much.
Now as for my comments about the fiber-optics and such, I completely disagree with you. You think it's far too costly obviously. Well you obviously haven't seen the inside of that electronic gizmo sitting in front of your face while responding to my post directed to Svarog. If you weren't so busy trying to prove me wrong then you'd realize that any 12 year old child could put together a radio transmitter using bare minimum spare parts from old television sets and the quickly aging computer in front of our very faces.
It's not a matter of costs! It's a matter of interest and motivation. I'm sorry but I simply don't buy into the whole 'have pity on me because I'm from a 3rd world country' routine. How many people have risen above their meager origins? Well I have for one. My father repairs copier machines and my mother could never hold a job down because according to her, "they're all crazy and I'm the one who is right" philosophy is the right one to have. Ha, I laugh at such ignorant worthlessness. And countless others have before me. That's how the breakthrough in science occured. Someone living in poverty decided one day that there must be a way to improve upon the things which surround us.
And yet with all this devastation, some people are telling my country that we are being "stingy" with donations. WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE KIDDING? 15 mil not enough eh? WELL EXCUSE ME FOR DONATING AT ALL! I think there's something wrong with the world and I don't think it has anything to do with how much money my country is donating to help people we've never even met.
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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I
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Khaelo
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Underwater
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posted December 29, 2004 10:45 AM |
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Edited By: Khaelo on 29 Dec 2004
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no insult intended; disag
Off Topic: If you consider the Italian penninsula an empire, then have the history your way. Your comment here simply struck me as placing Archimedes in the Roman empire by implication, which IMHO is too late (not to mention odd, hence the "Greek" note). Time of Roman expansion, will that do? In any case, Archimedes is a minor point to the current topic.
Without a note specifing Svarog as the exclusive addressee of your posts, I assumed that they were public discussion. I didn't mean to intrude on a "private" conversation. However, since you've deigned to reply to my post despite my error, I will now respond back... 
On Topic: Some of the populations affected had uncertain access to clean water, even before the disaster, and you are talking about satellites. Forgive me, but that strikes me as absurd. I just used the expensive electronic gizmo in front of me to learn about people whose thatched huts have been washed away. I do not know if these people had electricity. Provided they did, radio transmitters are somewhat less absurd, but you didn't mention them before. There is still the question of logistics. How do you move thousands of people away from the shoreline in mere hours, if you have that much time in the first place?
With so many things threatening human life -- tsunamis, lack of clean water, food shortages, disease, the aformentioned near-Earth asteroids -- cost is a factor in deciding which ones to deal with first, like it or not. You link a webpage with information on tsunamis, and it says that most occur in the Pacific Ocean -- 90% according CNN's reports. So, how far up on the priority list should financially-strapped nations bordering the Indian Ocean put the eventuality of widespread tsunamis? Shouldn't the people dying now of cholera, etc. provoke more interest and motivation than the people who may die later if a giant wave sweeps them out to sea? We have the proverbial perfect vision of hindsight. They did not.
If you think that Third World countries should take more responsibility for their poverty, there may be something to that. I just don't see a disaster as nature-driven as tsunamis to be a solid platform for that particular position. I don't understand how one can blame them for neglecting this particular hazard, but that is what I see you doing in your posts. Perhaps my reading of your intention is mistaken?
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Cleverly
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