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tsunami facts, minus the politics
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tsunami facts, minus the politics |
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Midnitesun
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647Gaia 
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The following news article answered a few questions I had, though it did nothing to make my heart feel any better about the astronomical numbers of dead. What we must do beyond the immediate relief efforts, are obvious. The entire globe needs to be mapped out with an international warning system. If a world-wide system had been in place, thousands might have been spared in this tragedy. The numbers of dead are staggering. It appears that nearly every country on this planet has offered to aid the survivors, help rebuild. Now, at any expense, the world's banks must open up, to allow an international warning system to be put into place. My God, what a mess this world is in! that thousands had to perish in the blink of an eye. Nature cannot be tamed. But we should at least have some warning for the next time. And there is bound to be another similar event in the future. ****http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=188612 Deadly quake sent waves as far as Americas Published: December 28, 2004 The Associated Press HONOLULU - The earthquake-driven tidal wave that devastated coastlines from Asia to Africa registered in the Pacific Ocean as far away as the United States and the coast of South America, experts said Monday. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck near Indonesia generated tsunamis that killed more than 25,000 in 10 countries as it spread west and north across the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. But the energy generated by the deep ocean waves also traveled to the Pacific, said Stuart Weinstein, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on Oahu. "We recorded tsunami waves along the coast of South America, on the coast of American Samoa, in Fiji, even Mexico, and the west coast of the United States," Weinstein said. "It's been a multi-ocean tsunami," he added. "It's probably the first multi-ocean tsunami since Krakatoa." The eruption of the volcano on the island of Krakatau on Aug. 27, 1883, generated a massive wave that swept over the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra, killing 36,000 people. Other experts said this weekend's tidal waves were similar to those that struck the West Coast centuries ago. On Jan. 26, 1700, an earthquake of approximately magnitude 9.0 buckled the ocean floor from Vancouver Island to Northern California, setting off a tsunami that swamped the coast and washed away houses in Japan. {(please note this part especially)} The tsunami warning center issued a tsunami warning bulletin over the weekend and tried to warn the countries in the path of the tidal waves, but lacked the right contact numbers. There is no tsunami warning center for the Indian Ocean. "They were not plugged into this international effort to monitor tsunamis," Arun Swamy, a fellow at the East-West Center who specializes in South Asian politics, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. "There was certainly a lot of time. It would have been easy to evacuate people. But no one knew ... to prepare for it." The Pacific has an underwater tsunami-detection system of six buoys nestled strategically on the ocean floor at depths of up to 18,000 feet. Three of the devices are off the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, one is off Vancouver, British Columbia, one is off Oregon and one is between Hawaii and Chile. The gauges on the ocean bottom are linked to buoys on the sea surface, which transmit date to a satellite, said Gerard Fryer, a University of Hawaii geophysicist who is also the adviser to the Hawaii Department of Civil Defense. Two of the three sensors off the Aleutians are currently not working because the surface buoys, which are battered by the rough winter seas, need to be replaced, he said. "When they work, they're wonderful, they're very very sensitive," Fryer said. A seventh sensor is being planned for somewhere off the Hawaiian Islands, but the location hasn't been chosen yet, he said. --- On the Net: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center: http://wcatwc.gov |
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| © Copyright 2004 Kathleen Kacy Stafford - All Rights Reserved | |||
Mistletoe Angel 
since 2000-12-17
Posts 32816Portland, Oregon |
That's the essential first step. But the even greater importance is that climatologists MUST be taken seriously, their reports must be tolerated and respected by all means, other than the real terms of the money being aided in comparison to war, etc. That's one of the major points I was addressing in my politically-charged thread, but there's even a great importance to this that isn't politically-motivated. Extreme weather IS formed by global warming, and if climatologists can begin to reach the mass public eye, we could begin to find solutions to reverse these effects and prevent other possible long-term disasters. Sincerely, Noah Eaton "You'll find something that's enough to keep you |
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Mysteria
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328British Columbia, Canada |
Thank you for your empathetical and informative post Kacy. To quote a teen I heard yesterday at a Red Cross center here, "Man, this sure sucks!" |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
“My God, what a mess this world is in! that thousands had to perish in the blink of an eye.” Seems you’re addressing that person most responsible according to many. I can’t help but wonder why three million men, women, and children recently starving to death in North Korea, (ten percent of that country’s population), went with relatively so little notice or sense or horror. “Extreme weather IS formed by global warming, and if climatologists can begin to reach the mass public eye, we could begin to find solutions to reverse these effects and prevent other possible long-term disasters.” “Quick definitions (Climatology) noun: meteorology of climates and their phenomena Quick definitions (Climate) noun: the weather in some location averaged over some long period of time” which has how much to do with an earthquake occurring five miles below the surface of the sea? As an aside: “The China Earthquake of 1976 . . . “The extent of the destruction and number of deaths in Tangshan and elsewhere in China was never disclosed officially. However, based on the density of population, it was fairly accurately estimated that there were at least 655,000 people dead, and 780,000 injured. These figures make the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the second worse earthquake in recorded history. The most destructive earthquake ever, as reported earlier, occurred at Hausien in China's Shensi Province in 1556.” http://www.drgeorgepc.com/EarthquakesChina.html I seen an estimate of 750,000 dead. Let’s also keep in mind that, because of advances made by man, the world’s population doubled to six billion in less than a century, (as mentioned before, there were more human beings alive in the 20th century than in all of the preceding ten thousand years combined). “There is no tsunami warning center for the Indian Ocean.” Which was a choice made by India and others in the region, (I understand India recently announced a change). Something else to worry about: “The quake was the largest since a magnitude 9.2 temblor struck Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1964 and was one of the biggest ever recorded by scientists. It triggered the first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-tsunami27dec27,0,3904884.story?coll=la-home-headlines[/URL] however in 1908 at Tunguska: “Estimates vary, but it is safe to say that the explosion was the equivalent of at least a twenty-megaton bomb or about a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. . . Scientists estimate that something in the region of 75 million meteors of different sizes enter the Earth’s atmosphere every year. .. between 1975 and 1992 there were 136 air bursts caused by meteors several meters across. All of these exploded before they reached the ground, but if they had survived the heat and reached the ground intact, they would have been powerful enough to devastate a town or part of a city.” Michael White (Weird Science) http://www.icr.org/research/sa/sa-r05.htm http://www.orc.ru/~azorcord/page_sob.htm Finally: Using AGI figures through 2000 and estimating 1,312,990 for 2001 - 2003, and factoring in a possible 3% undercount AGI estimates for its own figures, the total number of abortions performed in the U.S. from 1973-2003 equals 44,670,812." http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html [This message has been edited by Huan Yi (12-31-2004 01:21 AM).] |
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Midnitesun
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647Gaia |
Noah, the tsunami was caused by an earthquake, and I don't see any data that supports it being from climate change, though everything man does to change the earth will eventually....change it dramatically, and not necessarily to man's benefit. John, lots of interesting facts you bring forth, but excuse me....why add the numbers on birth control? I think I get your point, 'progress' and things men do to alter the balance. But this thread is about early warning systems, the need for a network of communication that is global. Nothing more, nothing less. How could you not see that? If you wish to go into a discussion about abortion or starvation, start different threads please, as they are very, very serious issues that deserve a separate forum thread. Thanks, Sharon, and that teen took the words out of my mouth. Actually, perhaps this thread didn't belong here in the Alley, but a different forum? I doubt there are many sane people who would disagree or argue the point that we need a global warning system for such events. Otherwise? Maybe wealthy tourists will stay home, not travel to those 'unprotected' poorer parts of the world? |
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