Postquake reading, silence of Tsunami, but …. WHY?
Tuesday, March 29th, 2005 | 11:02 pm @ SK
Since Dec 26, came the latest. I was about to sleep when my brother and gf, called respectively from Penang and KL.
I quickly switched on the TV and Channel New Asia was reporting it, LIVE. This time, it happened to be at Northern Sumatera, Indonesia at 8.2 on the Richter scale. USGS then reclassified the magnitude of the quake to Magnitude 8.7.
From time to time, I monitor the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) update on earthquakes with magnitude greater than 2.5 located by the USGS and its contributing networks. Obviously, it’s a worrying trend by looking into the repeat occurence of quakes above Magnitude 5, for the last 24 hours.
Probably I should have felt really glad that this quake didn’t trigger tsunami as compared to the December 26. Carolyn Bell from the USGS shared some light on this. Quote:
“This earthquake occurred about 200 miles (321 kilometres) south of the epicenter of the previous earthquake. […]“And we know also that this earthquake was somewhat deeper, that is, focused deeper in the earth’s crust than the previous earthquake. It was of a lesser (sic) magnitude. This one was reputed to be 8.7. The previous one was a 9. […]
“And the interesting part about that, even though the numbers seem very small together, the difference between 8.7 and 9.0, is about twice as much energy in the December earthquake as in this one.” […]
“Obviously we are not exactly sure. But perhaps two things, one, it seems to be somewhat deeper and therefore it did not have as much lift on the ocean floor to cause a tsunami. The other thing is, it seems to have directed a lot of its force to the south, along the fault, and that also reduced the impact.”
Just like him, not a single soul is exactly sure of WHAT and more importantly, WHY?
But this time, I’m so sure that, “someone” must be blessing us atop.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:42 am
Hi SK
So, you missed feeling the shake-shake, sway-sway lah? I also have the same thoughts. How much more we do not know….
March 30th, 2005 at 11:28 am
thank God thank God thank God!
March 30th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
Yes, I missed that moment. Even last time too, I was sleeping when the guard evacuated the whole condominium.
I never realise it until gf woke me up.
Because I trust Malaysia building structure is very stable, won’t collapse.
That’s why. Haha!