US Geophysicist: Quake Rattled Earth Orbit, Changed Map Of Asia

[Bob Hubbard]

US Geophysicist: Quake Rattled Earth Orbit, Changed Map Of Asia

Author: Yahoo Source: Yahoo

Title: QUAKE RATTLED EARTH ORBIT, CHANGED MAP OF ASIA: US GEOPHYSICIST

An earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said.

The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Sumatra island Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 meters (66 feet), according to one expert.

"That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP.


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Original Thread: http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=11885

 

[Makalakumu]

This quake was only the 4th largest in 100 years. 4th largest!!!!

I wonder which ones were 1,2,3?

 

[MA-Caver]

We, mankind seem to keep thinking that the planet Earth will stay the same for centuries, and relatively speaking it has, but this natural occurring event is just that... a natural part of the growth and expansion of the planet. Geologic time is radically different than ours. 10,000 years is a blink of an eye by comparison.
What is probably one of the oddest things about the human animal is that we tend to live in/on violent parts of the planet.
Hurricanes wipe out Florida and the Gulf of Mexico (coast) every year and people still live there.
California subject to frequent earthquakes and is home to one of the most geological unstable sites in the world (San Andreas) and millions of people live there.
The list is endless and yet we still live there.
I'm not saying that we are too stupid to move away from these potentially dangerous areas but that we should be intelligent enough to know that some areas are at extreme risks. But somehow we still refuse the odds and live there anyway.
Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

 

[bignick]

In some ways, where we live makes logical sense, and puts in the greatest danger. My hometown is threatedened by floods almost every year and in 1997 it was almost destoryed, and twice in 2002. It is located next to a river, at the bottom of an ancient lake? Sound brilliant? Not on the surface. But the lake bed makes it some of the most fertile ground in the world and rivers (and railroads) are where cities were founded because of transportation issues. Same with Florida, the weather is usually great and it's surrounded by the ocean, New York City, right on the ocean, again...transportation. Oceans mean food and transportation. There was a method to our madness of settling and every once and a while we pay the price for it.

As far as comparing it to destruction caused by man, we've been at war for over a year, with over a thoused U.S. fatilities and countless Iraqi and Afghani losses. War is probably the most destructive thing that humans being do. This still did more damage and killed more people in a matter of minutes than than Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sept. 11 put together.

As MACAVER stated, this is no evil act nor is there anything sinister behind this...it's just the earth, doing what it does, has done and will continue to do as long as it exists. As for me, this is still too surreal for me to actually grasp the enormity of the destruction. Whether I'll ever be able to is still in question...

 

[Makalakumu]

In some ways, where we live makes logical sense, and puts in the greatest danger. My hometown is threatedened by floods almost every year and in 1997 it was almost destoryed, and twice in 2002. It is located next to a river, at the bottom of an ancient lake? Sound brilliant? Not on the surface. But the lake bed makes it some of the most fertile ground in the world and rivers (and railroads) are where cities were founded because of transportation issues. Same with Florida, the weather is usually great and it's surrounded by the ocean, New York City, right on the ocean, again...transportation. Oceans mean food and transportation. There was a method to our madness of settling and every once and a while we pay the price for it...

I know exactly where you are talking about. I was in East Grand Forks in 97 helping build the sandbag walls (that eventually failed). In this case and in many others, the way humans have tried to control nature have only made the problems worse. Near your home, you've had massive wetland destruction. You've had impermeable sheids put over large swaths of ground. You've had massive dykes built to protect from flooding nearly along the entire length of the Red River.

So, when it rains or the snow melts, the water rushes immediately into the river, pouring off parking lots and skipping entirely the natural system of catchpans that wetlands provide. The water levels rise precipitously....and instead of pouring over the large flat plains, they pile up behind the dykes, in some case 40 ft above the surrounding terrien.

Imagine this, fifty miles of river. 35-40 feet above flood stage along its entire length. All of this water seeking to find the lowest point. When one of those dykes bursts, the destructive power of that water with the force of the entire river behind it. This is a truly catastrophic human snafu.

One of many...

upnorthkyosa

 

[bignick]

that's the place...I'm about an hour south of EGF

 

[psi_radar]

The list is endless and yet we still live there.
I'm not saying that we are too stupid to move away from these potentially dangerous areas but that we should be intelligent enough to know that some areas are at extreme risks. But somehow we still refuse the odds and live there anyway.
Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

Cough***Seattle***Cough

 

[Simon Curran]

It just seems to make all of mankind's petty bickering pale in comparisson