8.9 magnitude
 

I'm surprised no one has posted about this. For many of us, this is the strongest earthquake in our lifetime. I hope that the estimate of 700 people does not get much higher. What is weird for me is that I was watching the earthquake scene in the movie Superman when this was happening in real life.

Mother Nature kicking our asses. I hope any TFPers who may be near this expansive area are well.

Yahoo!

Wow, thats huge.
Last major earthquake I knew of, was the one in Iran, 50,000 people died there.
Wasn't very big, but had so many casualitys.

I too...hope the death toll is a minmal as possible. Having grown up in California, I got so used to Earthquakes, I believe I have become conditioned to them. They are a truly frieghtening experience, and I hope all is well with those who went through it.

I think its being reported now as closer to 8.5?

I think the death toll will be at least 10,000 - I think they are quotying 1,500 already

edit - death toll now being given as 3,500 and rising.

it does make you think, grant some perspective... I am sure a lot of people have the Christmas Blues, I know I have, and always do this time of year... but today I still have a home, I still have a life, I am not searching for my loved ones to see if they are amongst the dead. A lot to be thankful for.

Fox's AP feed says 5600 and rising. Suddenly feel quite useless here in my little sheltered sphere of reality, surrounded by Christmas wrapping & food.

From Yahoo link.
This freaks me out, even though this is literally on the other side of the planet from me.

I've been reading about this on the BBC news - I'd reccomend them for thorough coverage, including accounts from people who were there. It looks incredibly bad, thousands dead. Since I live about four blocks from the ocean (and also lived through a large earthquake), this sort of story really makes me think - if that earthquake had happened on this side of the Pacific it would have been my town that was washed away. :eek:

http://www.crystalinks.com/rof2.gif

The quake happened at the Western part of what is called The Ring of Fire. The Eastern part of the Ring of Fire is our (America's) West coast.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ake_map416.gif

yeah, Fox is now quoting 7,000 - I think it could be 20,000 by the end. This is a truly awful tragedy.

Here's the BBC link I've been following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/...er/default.stm

It's sorta scary to read about some of the stuff in Phuket, people being washed from their beachside cabins or lounge chairs and washing up dead later in the day. I live in Hong Kong and was vacationing in Thailand this spring break, and I've been on those exact beaches and islands, and can see how devastating even a moderate-sized wave would be. There's not as many people as there would be in the spring or summer (it's now a chilly 84F during the days), but it's still a real tragedy.

BBC is now quoting over 9,500.

Very disturbing and sad event.

Here are the links I've been following:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/12/2...8.shtml?tid=99 Slashdot discussion
http://www.command-post.org/nk/

I'm contacting my collegues on that side of the world to see how they are faring...

So far nothing in the immediate areas, but we'll see just what continues...

11,500 is the latest death toll! i am supprised it is not more considering most of the area is very hevely populated and not very far above sea level!!!
one thing that is pissing me off about the media's coverage of this is that the comercial chanels here is australia are not doing much in the way of covering it! it is simply a side note on the news.
this is a major catastrophy! and they are turning a blind eye!
we wouldn't be able to escape it if it were america, that all that would be on the news!

---and here I am setting around being pissed of that the frost kiled two of my plants last night----HE does have a way of getting our attention and making us evaluate what is really important...God Bless them all...VG

My family was in that region on vacation just a few months ago. I'm glad they're not there today.

wow, scary stuff. Maybe I should start watching the news. I had no idea this was going on until now. God bless those places that need it!

*clavus shakes head sadly and makes the following prediction - over 20,000 dead*

Reuters is reporting 12,300. I wonder how many more will die from disease and famine where this wave hit.

There is really nothing much to say as it won't do any good, but it seems as if the whole world is slowly falling apart in the past few years. We are plagued with natural disasters and wars. Maybe it’s a warning, maybe not, either way, something tells me we won't last much longer.

If anyone has sound information, as to places that receive donations (of money and goods) for immediate help... I for one want to help. Please keep us posted. Hopefully everyone World Wide will step up to the plate and offer assistance.

Very sad, indeed.

The world isn't falling apart. The earth has been doing stuff like this for billions of years. Only now it's happening during a time when humans are around.

Yes, but it has been happening much more often in the past several years than any time I could remember. When you look at all the natural disasters that have happened in the past 5 years, it is pretty incredible, everything from earthquake after earthquake to hurricane after hurricane. Also, wars and terrorist attacks all around the world is getting out of hand.

That's like trying to make a straight line a kilometer long with two points a cm apart.

Anyway, a friend of mine has parents sailing around the world and they're somewhere around Malaysia right now. No word yet, I really hope they're okay.

It's a terrible thing to think of an earthquake this size. No warning like a hurricane, just out of the blue. My thoughts are with those involved. :(

yeah, news clips showed flooding devastation in asia.

I just think it's wierd to think while I was playing with my new ipod, halfway across this rock we call Earth, thousands of people were dying in a massive earthquake.

Really puts things into perspective somehow.

Over 14,000 according to the BBC

May their souls rest in peace.

Over 20,000 now being reported and supposed to go higher. And the magnitude is now being reported at 9.0

I went through our little 1990 7.1 ride in the Santa Cruz mountains. Knew several people who closed up shop and moved back to the mid-west and the safety of tornadoes because of it. While we did have numerous tremors in the year preceding the big one, the invisible approach was more than they could sleep with.

This disaster is a strong lesson for our geologists and governments in handling future incidents. Earthquake watch groups around the world claim to have attempted contact with the affected areas for hours, but could find no infrastructure who would listen, let alone deal with evacuations. No doubt finger pointing will be rampant. The whole thing really is tragic.

What's amazing, fascinating, interesting, scary, frightening or whatever, is that this affected so many countries...you know what I mean? You hear of terrible quakes in Turkey, Japan, China, Mexico, even America but those are in one country and land-based (usually). This one just does a shake in the ocean floor and like ripples in a pond...produce waves that keep going until they hit something. This wave travelled thousands of kilometers and hit the African coast (Somolia..I think) and 9 were confirmed missing. Unbelievable!!

I first heard of the quake (and following tidal wave) when the count was in its 100's. the second time it was thousands and last it was above 20000. It felt weird seeing al of it unfold in front of my eyes in full colour and sound and not being able to do anything. Made me appreciate my safe and uneventfull personal Christmas.

My thoughts go out to all those involved. Good luck

Its already over 22,000 and .. I just have no idea where its going to stop . Including 3 people reported drowned in Somalia.

I just read a report it could be up to hundreds in Somalia. What a monumental tragedy.

I finally heard back from our friend in Thailand... I'm still waiting to hear from my cousin...

very sad... very very sad.

she said in a previous email that even the tall buildings in Bangkok were affected...

Opened the local paper here this morning and read about another family friend that was in the area. He's in Thailand with his wife and daughter on holidays. They're all right and their story of the destruction from the massive waves is harrowing.

The stories coming out now of people being swept out to see, dragged across coral and on and on are just terrible, I cannot imagine what it's like to be involved with something like this.

It's good to hear your friend is okay Cynthetiq.

Glad to hear some of our TFP friends are ok. I can't imagine what it must have been like going through that ordeal. The toll is now over 23,000 by some accounts and I expect it to grow even more.

Praying for those overseas......

yahoo said that over a 620-mile section of the fault line shifted. It must have taken decades for the pressure to build up that far. Even if the shift along the line was 1 inch, it was over 600 MILES of the ocean floor that shifted at the same time!

The current death toll is over 23,000.

I urge any of you who can to donate some money, no matter how small, to disaster relief funds. Choose from the following small list

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp
http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvi...lpos=main1text
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp...1LdP0G&b=45523
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/donate.htm


Every dollar, every single dollar, counts. You can save lives from your home by donating as little as $5.

Please help.



Mr Mephisto

wow, thats alot bigger than i thought, i heard afew small things about this, but never caught anyheadlines untill this thread was posted

it's shocking that that actually disrupted earth's axis