Access difficulties to the affected area and the destruction of hospitals, hotels and shops suggest that the number of dead will cross the thousand
Hardly a day has passed since the severe earthquake (8.3 on the Richter scale) In the Samoan Islands in the Pacific Ocean And already another powerful earthquake in Southeast Asia, although it is thousands of kilometers away from the epicenter in Samoa.
As of 23:45 the official number is still low, but due to the conditions, it is estimated that at least a thousand people were killed in the disaster that hit the area of Padang city, and also caused the destruction of two hospitals. The noise, with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale, about 50 kilometers south of the island of Sumatra. Just a few hours earlier, over a hundred people were killed by tsunami waves created by the noise in the Samoan Islands. After the noise, a tsunami warning was issued throughout the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
The roads to the big city were blocked and it took the authorities many hours yesterday to reach the epicenter, and it was reported that schools and hotels were also destroyed by the earthquake.
The Vice President of Indonesia, Yusuf Kalla said that the death toll could increase very quickly because so many buildings were destroyed. In the previous strong earthquake in Indonesia, in 2006, over 3,000 people were killed. In a strong earthquake that happened in Indonesia in December 2004 and the great tsunami that struck after it, over a quarter of a million people were killed.
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Error correction, of course:
As a longtime reader of the site, I am amazed at your shock at Gillian.
As a long-time reader of Noam's site, you should learn to read carefully - I wasn't shocked, but the yawning mother. And now the truth, I too am already starting to yawn from boredom...
yawn,
As a long time reader of the site, I am amazed at your shock Gillian.
This is one of the most polite and gentle responses this lady knows how to produce.
Usually, she lashes out in a much uglier way at anyone who dares to think differently from her, arrogantly disparaging anyone who bears any title.
Gillian is a world expert in her own eyes in every field and in every discussion, she is never wrong, she will never back down, even when it turns out that her arguments are empty of content and far from any truth.
In short - no ordinary mortals should try to dispute her.
Of course, Gillian, working for the oil!
You did not use insulting language towards my father and when I resented your language then it is a fact that I wanted to quarrel and start fights and I did an ugly act to say the least.
I'm surprised that you managed to write several comments already without writing "and not for the first time"!
Michael and Michael's yawning lawyer are very interesting: My father was not offended, he did not consider my words an insult - but for some reason you find it appropriate to be offended on his behalf...
And I didn't try to insult Michael either - I stated facts for the sake of it, nothing less and nothing more.
And to the dear yawner - don't be too shocked, we might still think that the earth is shaking, mercifully...
As a reader of the site for years I am shocked every time again by Gillian's behavior and the way she puts the blame on others.
It's OK.
know you
You can't insult me anymore either.
And in my opinion, Michael - you are just looking for conflict and quarrels, extremely ugly to say the least.
Maybe my father has already gotten used to appeals like "I suggest you wake up" that show him for no reason as someone who is asleep, and maybe he just knows how to sleep.
In my opinion, there is no reason to get used to such inquiries or to suppress them and they should be eradicated.
I certainly understand the limited resources, my father, but maybe it would be useful on occasion - when there will be less pressure (if there are such situations at all), to also write something general on the subject. In any case, I am in favor and believe that this is an important issue that not many people are aware of.
I'm glad to hear that you weren't offended, because that certainly wasn't my intention, and I also don't think, as stated, that this was implied from the words, but since Michael interpreted the matter that way, I was already starting to worry.
No. Ben-Ner in response 16:
Here is a website with statistics about 9 years. I don't get much out of it. Maybe you are?
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqstats.html
And if you search, you can almost certainly find more statistical information.
I agree with everything that Michael Rothschild answered you in response 17.
There is much more to learn about earthquakes.
Gillian, I wasn't offended, but in any case, Michael is right about an important thing: my resources are limited, so I have to exercise discretion, according to the matter and according to the other things that are on that day.
I don't have a problem with criticism, nor with those who suggest what to do, I wish I could upload 50 news items a day, and believe me there is something to write about in the topics the site deals with. 🙂
Did I insult the author of the article? Sorry??? Didn't we get a little carried away?
Just to give you an earful: My father and I know each other personally and he is even a lecturer at our association, so of course I have no interest in insulting him as an accountant, and I did not do so. Criticism does not mean insulting and I am sure that my father does not see it as an insult, on the contrary. Criticism is A positive thing in the world of science.
In other words - you can write a response that complements the information without making claims and insulting the author of the article.
Gillian:
You may be right, but my father can't do everything.
That's what the reaction mechanism exists for, and it seems to me that in this case, at least, it worked.
Gentlemen - you are missing the point.
Of course there is no need to follow every tremor and tremor and I wonder if this is what you inferred from my words.
On the other hand, an article like this creates the impression in the average reader that it is about earthquakes out of the blue and this is not the case. It is appropriate and desirable, when writing an article of this kind, to give the correct background, especially for the benefit of the average reader of popular science magazines.
In my opinion there are several reasons to refer to certain earthquakes and less to others.
One reason is - it won't help - the number of casualties. It just interests us as humans.
Another reason is what can be deduced from them about the future. For example, a strong earthquake in the middle of the sea can cause a tsunami and publishing the warning in advance can save many people.
I don't think that the science site, which is basically a site of popular science and science and technology news, should replace or duplicate the close monitoring that geologists do of the earth's crust.
If every earthquake is published, the site will not deal with anything else and no one will be able to benefit from it.
I am not claiming that the close monitoring of the tremors is not necessary. On the contrary - it is extremely necessary and its role is to allow the professionals to extract laws from the patterns it reveals - but those who are involved in this will not look for this data on the science website and in my opinion - it is good that it is.
A. Ben-Ner:
Earthquakes do often come in bunches.
The very common phenomenon is the so-called After Shocks - meaning - vibrations following a strong vibration.
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock
There is also a significant understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that create earthquakes and from these mechanisms it is clear that there is a connection between the earthquakes (in general, an earthquake "releases part of the pressure" created by the tectonic movement of the plates in one place, but the pressure is not always completely released - and sometimes also a part from the pressure that is released in one place simply accumulates in another and contributes to the formation of a future earthquake in that place).
The reason why we still do not know how to predict much based on this connection lies in several factors, the most important of which is that we simply do not have accurate information about the exact internal structure of the Earth's crust at every point.
This is a huge collection of data that I find it hard to believe will be in our possession even in the foreseeable future.
to "Kan Ada"
I don't know how much of an expert you are in the field, but I assume that even if the geophysical mechanism of earthquakes is not known in its entirety, the statistics of their occurrences are known, at least several hundred years back.
The statistics may also indicate possible connections between earthquakes that are close in time, although it is true that these are only circumstantial connections.
Therefore, the question that arises here is, is it known, at a statistically significant level, whether earthquakes appear in "bunches"?
I will appreciate a knowledgeable answer.
For response 11 - Luke:
No one can say for sure that there is or is not a connection between these 2 strong tremors, first in the southern hemisphere and then in Indonesia.
The connection may be accidental - or not.
Maybe in the future we will be smarter.
to Gillian
Is it possible to understand from your comments below that, in your opinion, a more serious approach to the subject of earthquakes, all year round, on the Hedan website, may reduce the number of victims as a result of them and even reduce the amount and intensity of earthquakes, for the future?
If the answer is "yes", then I'm in favor.
If the answer is - "maybe", even then I'm in favor, in order to exhaust the chance.
If the answer is "no", I'm still in favor because... maybe the "no" is a mistake
And the real answer is still, "yes" or "maybe".
In conclusion :
On the one hand... you are right.
On the other hand...don't you think that more frequent reporting on earthquakes should appear in the journals of the various seismological associations and institutes?
They also deserve a little income.
My father, my friend,
Does a tree that falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear its fall make no sound?
The meaning is indeed the intensity of the noise, and not the amount of destruction it caused - I mentioned Italy only to demonstrate that even an earthquake whose intensity is much lower than the intensities you are interested in is a significant event that must be taken seriously, whether or not it caused destruction and casualties. It is enough that such an event has a destructive potential and no - not only a dangerous tsunami.
By the way, just an interesting curiosity: until the beginning of the 2000s, no one in Israel, apart from a few who specifically deal in the field, did not know the term "tsunami" at all. Today every child uses it. interesting…
Joseph,
I think you are mixing two completely unrelated issues.
The degree of damage depends not only on the intensity, but also on the local construction methods, population density, etc.
Geologically, what is interesting is the intensity of the noise and not the number of casualties.
It seems necessary to survey the earthquakes considering both factors, while separating local factors that depend on human behavior, and geological factors
Question: Is there a connection between the two vibrations (despite the great distance between them)?
The reference is usually to power. If the event occurs in the middle of the sea, it has the potential to set off a tsunami and therefore increase the number of deaths, a smaller event on land is local, and should only be considered if it is massive like in China or Italy. The same noise in the middle of the desert will hurt at most a few camels.
Gilian, I think that your answer contains a key to the reference regarding coverage of this type and it emerges precisely from your reference to the earthquake in Italy. It is not the strength of the earthquake that is important, but the destruction, and unfortunately also the number of dead. That is why we are not required to report every earthquake that occurs, (because otherwise we do not get out of it, as you know and mentioned the large number of earthquakes) but to focus mainly on those that caused the destruction and killing of people, just like the one mentioned in the review above.
Did I offer? My suggestion is very simple: don't wake up only when there is a sudden tremor with an intensity above 8 and treat the issue with due seriousness and due seriousness (not to mention at least mentioning it in an article of this kind).
By the way, my father, your argument regarding earthquakes with an intensity above 7.5 is a bit puzzling to say the least, since quite a few earthquakes with much lower intensities turn out to be much more destructive - for example the earthquake that struck Italy about six months ago (6.3) and caused hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of homeless.
Continued: The earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 in the southern hemisphere, which preceded the tsunami earthquake of December 26, 2004, happened on December 23 and its magnitude was 8.1.
Here is a link with more details about her:
http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/earthquake.pl?title=North+of+Macquarie+Island&magnitude=8.1&depth=10&xy=160.130,-50.240&date=23,12,2004&time=14,59,04&bg1=eqrisk_lm&zoom=2500&station=MILA
Reminder: even before the 2004 earthquake that caused the great tsunami - it was preceded by a strong earthquake in the southern hemisphere.
See you have been warned for the future.
Peshesh Gillian, you really opened my eyes, I didn't know that there were earthquakes to that extent... and these are earthquakes that if they were in Israel, everyone would be stressed by them! Even from the 4+
Thanks anyway…
Gillian, I didn't understand what your proposal is and what is the practical and serious alternative you offer to this kind of article?
Even CNN does not report in most cases. It is advisable and worthwhile to keep up to date on the USGS and EMSC websites.
I prefer to refer to tremors of 7.5 and above, and these are the particularly dangerous tremors, which have the potential to be reported to a scientific website as well.
Mind you, I watch a lot of CNN.
Father, with all due respect - as the editor of a scientific and serious magazine, I really suggest that you wake up and stop referring only to the tremors reported by the media in Israel and examine the issue in a professional and objective manner.
The earth "attacks" almost every day and high-intensity tremors occur in various places due to the globe and are not even mentioned in Israel.
For example - where is the 6.7 magnitude earthquake that happened yesterday in Russia?