Be Informed: Natural Disasters

Joyce Comments: This post is not intended to scare you, but inform you. A major earthquake estimated to be measured about 8.9 has occurred earlier today that may have briefly interfered with the Earth's rotation. This is huge news considering that other related or non-related natural disasters are also occurring now around the world hours after this major quake. Not to scare you, but please take this post to heart of information. I am posting from Ready.gov and prepare yourself and your family for any unwanted or unexpected dramatic natural disaster that may occur (likely it won't) and feel free to give the Red Cross any monitary help you can. People in Florida with the numerous hurricanes this year; New Jersey with the floods in Southern New Jersey; and California and Texas with the abnormal snow may be quick to scream Global Warming, but don't jump to conclusions. In the case of American weather abnormalities it is probably just another El Nino passing through like it did in the 1990s. These huge natural disasters around the world could be two things: Mother Nature or Man-made, or even a mixture of the two. I'm leaning toward it being from Mother Nature with some help from Man (China, may be getting restless doing some illegal testing of major weapons underground in preparation for war against free democratic countries like the United States following the 2008 Beijing Olympics causing the pot to boil??) For the latest news these major earthquakes and tsunamis go to Yahoo News Full Coverage: Earthquakes & Volcanos. Following are the suggestions from Ready.gov that you can use if you choose followed by USGS Earthquake Hazards Program:


BE INFORMED:
NATURAL DISASTERS

Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as making an emergency supply kit and developing a family communications plan, are the same for both a natural or man-made emergency. However, there are important differences among natural disasters that will impact the decisions you make and the actions you take. Some natural disasters are easily predicted, others happen without warning. Planning what to do in advance is an important part of being prepared.



Find out what natural disasters are most common in your area. You may be aware of some of your community’s risks: others may surprise you. Historically, flooding is the nation's single most common natural disaster. Flooding can happen in every U.S. state and territory. Earthquakes are often thought of as a West Coast phenomenon, yet 45 states and territories in the United States are at moderate to high risk from earthquakes and are located in every region of the country. Other disasters may be more common in certain areas. Tornados are nature's most violent storms and can happen anywhere. However, states located in "Tornado Alley," as well as areas in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Florida are at the highest risk for tornado damage. Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Scientists can now predict hurricanes, but people who live in coastal communities should plan what they will do if they are told to evacuate.



The Federal Emergency Management Agency has information available about the following natural disasters:


Earthquakes
Extreme Heat
Fires
Floods
Hurricanes
Landslide and Debris Flow (Mudslide)
Thunderstorms
Tornadoes
Tsunamis
Volcanoes
Wildfires
Winter Storms and Extreme Cold

Planning what to do in advance is an important part of being prepared. Find out what natural disasters are most common in your area.


For more general information, see "Are you Ready?" from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Disaster Safety from the Red Cross.


USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Magnitude 8.9 - OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
2004 December 26 00:58:50 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A great earthquake occurred at 00:58:50 (UTC) on Sunday, December 26, 2004. The magnitude 8.9 event has been located OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)


Magnitude 8.9
Date-Time Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 6:58:50 AM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 3.298°N, 95.779°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
Distances
250 km (155 miles) SSE of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
320 km (200 miles) W of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
1260 km (780 miles) SSW of BANGKOK, Thailand
1605 km (1000 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 9.2 km (5.7 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst=157, Nph=157, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.35 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID usslav
Felt Reports At least 2,200 people killed in Sri Lanka, 1,600 in India, 700 in Indonesia, 220 in Thailand, 29 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh by tsunamis. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Maldives, Cocos Island and Somalia. At least 200 people killed, buildings destroyed or damaged in the Banda Aceh area, Sumatra. Felt widely in Sumatra. Also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. This is the fifth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.



Today's shallow, thrust-type earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra at the interface between the India and Burma plates. In this region, the Burma plate is characterized by significant strain partitioning due to oblique convergence of the India and Australia plates to the west and the Sunda and Eurasian plates to the east. Off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a northeastward direction at about 5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate. Preliminary locations of larger aftershocks following today's earthquake show that approximately 1000 km of the plate boundary slipped as a result of the earthquake. Aftershocks are distributed along much of the shallow plate boundary between northern Sumatra (approximately 3 degrees north) to near Andaman Island (at about 14 degrees north).


Location Maps:
10-degree
NEIC Maps


Didyoufeelit?
Report shaking and damage at your location. You can also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others.

The earthquake locations and magnitudes cited in these bulletins are very preliminary, and may disagree with the more accuate USGS locations and magnitudes computed using more extensive data sets.


For more information, go to http://neic.usgs.gov/ || Contacts


Back to: World map | USA map

The official magnitude for this earthquake is indicated at the top of this page. This was the best available estimate of the earthquake's size, at the time that this page was created. Other magnitudes associated with web pages linked from here are those determined at various times following the earthquake with different types of seismic data. Although, given the data used, they are legitimate estimates of magnitude, they are not considered the official magnitude.



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FAQ about Earthquakes | Earthquake Preparedness

The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).