|
|
Looks as though there are natural disasters everywhere:
1. Samoas
| Quote: | Disaster officials rushed food, medicine and a temporary morgue to the Samoas on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake unleashed a tsunami that flattened villages and swept cars and people out to sea. At least 119 people were killed. Survivors fled to higher ground on the South Pacific islands after the magnitude 8.0 quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time (1:48 p.m. EDT; 1748 GMT) Tuesday.
Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) high roared ashore on American Samoa about 15 minutes after the quake, reaching up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland, Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying by a parks service spokeswoman. |
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090930/ap_on_re_au_an/as_pacific_earthquake
2. Indonesia
| Quote: | A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering landslides and trapping thousands under collapsed buildings — including two hospitals, an official said. At least 75 bodies were found, but the toll was expected to be far higher.
The temblor started fires, severed roads and cut off power and communications to Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 on Sumatra island. Thousands fled in panic, fearing a tsunami.
Buildings swayed hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
In the sprawling low-lying city of Padang, the shaking was so intense that people crouched or sat on the street to avoid falling. Children screamed as an exodus of thousands tried to get away from the coast in cars and motorbikes, honking horns.
The magnitude 7.6 quake occurred at 5:15 p.m. (1015GMT, 6:15 a.m. EDT), just off the coast of Padang, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It occurred a day after killer tsunami hit islands in the South Pacific and was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 11 nations. |
Quote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_indonesia_earthquake;_ylt=AqFtxvAtIjMoZLkSneGxnBBNYhAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJxbmNjbjVqBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTMwL2FzX2luZG9uZXNpYV9lYXJ0aHF1YWtlBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3Bvd2VyZnVsaW5kbw--
3. Vietnam and Philippines
| Quote: | Vietnam's central provinces battled the biggest floods in decades on Wednesday caused by a powerful typhoon that swept into the country after wreaking havoc in the Philippines.
Government reports said torrential rains from Typhoon Ketsana, which swept into Vietnam late on Tuesday, killed 40 people and left 10 missing from floods and landslides in nine coastal and central highland provinces.
Ketsana hit the Philippines at the weekend, killing 246 people, leaving another 42 missing, and causing damages totaling more than $100 million, officials said. |
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090930/wl_nm/us_asia_typhoon
Yeah. And the waters haven't fully subsided yet. I live in Cebu, a couple of islands south of Metro Manila, so we weren't really affected.
Metro Manila has always been prone to flooding, mostly just up to the knees, but the weekend's rains were said to be the heaviest in the capital's history: pouring a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours (so they say). Waters rose up to 2 meters and even up to 3 meters in some areas, just by the constant heavy downpour. People were stranded on rooftops, 2nd levels of buildings, some clinged to power lines... for extended periods with no food or water. I didn't really give it much thought in the past- but if you think about it, if waters rose to 3 meters, where would you get food? I mean, even if you were home? The fridge is almost always downstairs. lol
It's the 4th/5th day since the rain, and everybody's really trying to help the people affected, donating anything they can.
| tingkagol wrote: | Yeah. And the waters haven't fully subsided yet. I live in Cebu, a couple of islands south of Metro Manila, so we weren't really affected.
Metro Manila has always been prone to flooding, mostly just up to the knees, but the weekend's rains were said to be the heaviest in the capital's history: pouring a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours (so they say). Waters rose up to 2 meters and even up to 3 meters in some areas, just by the constant heavy downpour. People were stranded on rooftops, 2nd levels of buildings, some clinged to power lines... for extended periods with no food or water. I didn't really give it much thought in the past- but if you think about it, if waters rose to 3 meters, where would you get food? I mean, even if you were home? The fridge is almost always downstairs. lol
It's the 4th/5th day since the rain, and everybody's really trying to help the people affected, donating anything they can. |
That's really nice of the people to do that. Must be pretty devastating to loose all your possessions and your home, and for some the second time round.
More bad news: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSSP349560
Seems like god really hates us poor Filipinos. Oh well.
So far at least geography-wise, the region where I live in is rarely hit by typhoons (Cebu's in the center, in the visayas region). It's almost always the northern islands that are constantly hit. Like 5-6 typhoons a year. I don't really know why, but I think it has something to do with the Earth's rotation, or probably the area in the Pacific ocean that spawns these nasty winds. I dunno.
The last strong typhoon that hit these parts was in the early nineties. It was pretty devastating, I recon.
4. Flood in Georgia
5. Earthquake hits Bhutan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8267067.stm
Are the natural disasters really increasing? I know earthquakes happen all the time around the world.
Read this about Sumatra, in washington post
| Quote: |
Kerry Sieh, an American seismologist at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said Sumatra's current seismic spasms began in 2000 and have since produced about 30 quakes. Far worseis yet to come, he said, though not immediately.
"If you have a time-lapse picture of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, the first thing you see is a little flame, a tear, and then the whole thing blows apart," said Sieh, an authority on the area's geology and director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. "This is what is happening in Sumatra but in slow motion. The biggest explosion is yet to happen." |
[url][/url]
| supernova1987a wrote: | 4. Flood in Georgia
5. Earthquake hits Bhutan |
Thanks for posting Nos 4 and 5 supernova. The links provided interesting reading. Just looks to me that there are many more earthquakes all at the same time than what we are used to. And they aren't light ones either. Real heavy going ones.
Yes, I've noted also all the natural disasters going on these past weeks. Obviously there isn't anything in our power to stop these natural disasters (they're natural), but it still causes devastation, deaths, and serious damage to those who are hit. And these past weeks with magnitude +6 earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and floods are no exception.
| Nick2008 wrote: | | Yes, I've noted also all the natural disasters going on these past weeks. Obviously there isn't anything in our power to stop these natural disasters (they're natural), but it still causes devastation, deaths, and serious damage to those who are hit. And these past weeks with magnitude +6 earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and floods are no exception. |
I have a question: what is the difference between the old Richter scale and current magnitude? Is 6 on the Richter scale more or less than 6 in magnitude?
| deanhills wrote: | | I have a question: what is the difference between the old Richter scale and current magnitude? Is 6 on the Richter scale more or less than 6 in magnitude? |
Checkout these 2 articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale
They're very similar when we're talking 6 on the Richter scale and 6 on magnitude.
Thanks. I seem to have difficulty wrapping my brains cells around the two so that I can come up with a difference. In the simplest terms, what do you think the difference is between the two?
I wonder if all of these natural disasters have anything to do with global warming.
Even our winters/summers have been changing drastically. We've been hitting record low temperatures during the winter, and getting snow in April which is highly unlikely for the area that I am in. We've also had some extremely bad blizzards, hitting temperatures as a low as -40F. One town hit below -50F last winter, which is extremely cold.
I wonder what this years winter will have to offer.
| Ghost Rider103 wrote: | I wonder if all of these natural disasters have anything to do with global warming.
Even our winters/summers have been changing drastically. We've been hitting record low temperatures during the winter, and getting snow in April which is highly unlikely for the area that I am in. We've also had some extremely bad blizzards, hitting temperatures as a low as -40F. One town hit below -50F last winter, which is extremely cold.
I wonder what this years winter will have to offer. |
I'm not an expert, but my thinking is the same as yours. In the Middle East we have had record heat and for a longer period than usual. It is supposed to be cooling down during October, but it is still uncomfortable at times.
except for earthquakes it may be climate change, or el niño. Kinda rough period for a lot of people. Lucky me i don't have any problems with the climate... yet...
natural disasters.. T__T I am from the Philippines and I experienced that tragic storm Ketsana. I thought I was going to die. I couldn't go home and it was frustrating since I was only streets away. I stayed on a foot bridge cause the water was so high already and the current was too strong. The cold was too much. I was so scared especially since I was alone. It was a terrible experience. Up until now we still don't have a phone line and broadband connection at home. these natural disasters are scary. stay safe everyone.
Actually, you may be on to something...
What you may be on to, I have no idea... Hopefully, it won't turn into another climate-change-esque issue with people claiming it is caused by humans somehow.
Perhaps, though, it is just a reflection of better monitoring, and many such quakes were unnoticed in the past.
There also seems to be unusually high snow fall in China and unusually high temperatures here in Australia. Sea levels are also rising greatly.
What's next? Global Warming at a larger scale? The Day After Tomorrow?
God help us.
|
