Earthquake of magnitude 8.7 strikes off Sumatra, Indonesia | Hacker News Reader

Earthquake of magnitude 8.7 strikes off Sumatra, Indonesia

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A good comment on reddit about this : http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/s42xj/87_earthqua...

GEOFON automatic earthquake detection live feed: http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/list.php

Seismograms of 8.6Mww 0838UTC earthquake: http://rev.seis.sc.edu/earthquakes/2012/04/11/08/38/38

Seismograms of 8.2Mwp 1043UTC earthquake: http://rev.seis.sc.edu/earthquakes/2012/04/11/10/43/09

Technical data for 8.6Mww 0838UTC earthquake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000905e#...

Technical data for 8.2Mwp 1043UTC earthquake http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc00090da#...

Live sea level monitoring at Meulaboh: http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=meul

Live sea level monitoring at Sabang: http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=saba

Live sea level monitoring at Telukdalam: http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=telu

Data collation, analysis, predictions and warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre: http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=3

Live orbit position for OSTM/Jason-2 (satellite-based high resolution radar altimetry): http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=33105&lat=...

Live orbit position for Jason-1 (older satellite-based radar altimetry): http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=26997&lat=...

Umm.. there doesn't seem to be a seismogram in India. Atleast one that's doesn't have a website... Anyone knows any effort in that direction? I wonder how hard it would be to hook up the device output to a web service.

Map of those who reported that they felt it: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/c00090...

Map showing expected wave arrival times http://google.org/crisismap

There is a after shock of magnitude estimated 8.2 on Richter scale so far.

Fresh Tsunami alerts issued.

Highly irresponsible of Governments to lift Tsunami warnings so early.

Also delayed, conflicting tweets are causing a lot of panic. If you are tweeting please tweet carefully. Some body's life may depend on it.

I live in Indonesia, and there was Tsunami, about 30 minutes ago, as reported by local news TV. Two Tsunamis even, one 80 cm and another 60cm. My familly still feels many earthquakes after the first one, untill now. I live in Java, so I can't really feel the quake, but all my family's in North Sumatra, almost point-blank from the quake.

The earthquake produced horizontal movement, which is not likely to cause tsunamis.

That's an irresponsible thing to say. Tsunamis can be caused by a variety of different phenomena. Certainly direct vertical displacement of the sea floor is the most direct way, but underwater landslides especially on the flanks of seamounts are capable of creating massive tsunamis as well. And the latter can come about due to any variety of shaking.

Sure hope tsunamis won't be as big a problem this time as they were in 2004.

That would really suck for everyone. I'm all the way here in Europe and in my mind that tsunami thing was "a year or two ago". Can't imagine how recent it must seem to everyone actually involved ...

For what it's worth, the article actually says the magnitude was 8.7 (at a depth of 33 kilometers), not 8.9 as in the title here—not that it matters much.

I hope it doesn't cause as much damage as the one in 2004!

The one in 2004 was 9.1. Quite a difference considering that scale is logarithmic. Since then lots of infrastructure and processes are created to evacuate people and issue tsunami warnings. So people are at least better prepared.

A 8.7 quake can still cause a devastating tsunami. In addition to the strength of the shocks, the directionality of the energy release (horizontal or vertical) is crucial.

When I submitted it, the news was 8.9. Then they downgraded it, fortunately... The article is still a bit bare, but it's being updated.

You can't say it doesn't matter much as the difference is exponential

felt my chair shaking in Bangalore, India

It was felt throughout south India I believe and there is a tsunami warning

And a couple of shakes and chennai,India offices take a holiday off.

Update 1: Another earthquake in arabian sea, now. 155 kms off Mumbai, India.

Source : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/earthquake-in-arabian-sea-...

This is on the other side of the India ocean. Interesting geological activity. What are the chances of two earth quakes occurring at close by places like this?

That's a 3.4 earthquake ... that type of earthquake happens all the time so I would think the chances aren't so bad :)

I didn't notice anything being on Java now (coming from western Sumatra only a few days ago).

Btw, how is this Hackernews?

Read the manual: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html , section "What to Submit" ("anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.")

PS: the linked reddit comment alone helped me learn more about tsunami generation and horizontal/vertical earthquake movements than I knew before today)

There is also a history of posting news items for dangerous, large-scale events that don't match the given criteria, but may save some lives in case people in affected areas check HN but haven't heard warnings via other media.

Some of the guys at the office here in Singapore felt the aftershock, but most people didn't notice.

Had to read this closely. "Strikes off" is slang for "removes" where I'm from :|

here is the exact warning with all affected areas: http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/text.php?id=indian.TSUIOX.2012....

Can anyone explain to me why time to Singapore is so far off, though it seems very near to the center.

the waves have to take the way around sumatra. that takes time ...

> The tsunami, which washed away entire communities, caused nearly $10 billion in damage

So.. like 10 Valley start-ups? It's insane that livelihood of hundreds of thousands people in south east Asia is worth less than a few clever (and properly executed) ideas in CA.

Not average SV startups, to be sure. Only a rare minority end up being worth $1bn each.

He is talking about valuations.

Few SV startups have $1bn valuations, either. The distinction you're suggesting is irrelevant.

It was a tongue in cheek remark, I actually agree with you.

Sometimes it is hard to resist sarcasm, apologies for not adding anything of substance.

And my apologies for not getting it ;)

You are missing the point that $10billion in damage in Asia is LOT more than $10 billion (damage) in the US etc.

For example, the damage from Hurricane Katrina was around $82 billion. While damaging, I am sure the 2004 tsunami was a even worse disaster than Katrina.

Tremor was even felt here in uphills of Sri Lanka.(Nuwara Eliya)

Oh no. I was getting used to being able to buy hard drives again. :( (I feel sort of bad that "what supply chains that I care about get disrupted" is my first concern with most disasters)

Things to be angry about:

  * caring for hard drives over people's lives
  * confusing Thailand for Indonesia

Trollbait?

Tsunami in Indonesia can affect Singapore and Malaysia (and Thailand); Singapore/Malaysia is where a lot of the undamaged HD parts plants were, after the Thai flooding. I think the Indonesian plants were for arms (used by both WD and Seagate).

Also, a lot of other electronics assembly happens in Indonesia.

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