The earthquake in South-east Asia

Sonic Wanderer · Post by **Sonic Wanderer** » 26/12/2004 - 22:28

Let us stop for a minute and remind ourselves of the unimaginable powers held within the forces of nature, and the horrific and terrifying consequences wich can be luring within it's power.

Over 11.000 people dead. Most because of the the Tsunami waves caused by the quake. (Material damage due to the quake's vibrations itself is apparently not very big. Unbeleivable but true.)

Waves, half a metre high, and up to 100km long when created in deep-sea, rising to around 10metres when reaching the lowlwevel shores. Travelling at 700km/h.

Imagine the amount of force needed to do that.

Then imagine that it *is* possible to get worse!
This was "only" the 5th biggest quake in recorded history, but I'm sure our constantly changing world can produce far more devastating results yet.

So feel humble, feel *very* humble! <IMG SRC="http://home.vxu.se/mjhti00/Prayer.gif">

Sincerely.

/
Sonic

SelectaNovel · Post by **SelectaNovel** » 27/12/2004 - 0:10

These are moments when I start to think about relegion. It's as if the big hand of god (or be it some god) decides in an angry motion to rush over the earth's surface and take a thousand people's lives with it. Poor peoples are attacked by nature, rich peoples by airplanes. Desasters like these have always been, but the frequence of massdestruction nowaday is what scares me a lot.

Vosla · Post by **Vosla** » 27/12/2004 - 1:54

Imagine mankind could put these powers to good use... no need for fossil or nuclear power generation anymore...
but all we have here is a sad and unnecessary loss of lives.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 27/12/2004 - 2:06

"The Day After Tomorrow"...... *shakes head in sadness*..........

DaveT · Post by **DaveT** » 27/12/2004 - 10:33

Actually it doesn't surprise me much, really. Think about it for a moment.
The only reason we're sad about it is because of human lives lost. But the total destruction of most of the coral sea life, marine fauna (either by over fishing or by polution) and native forests in the area are irrelevant? And that ,my friends, was OUR fault! Our own ignorance and greed caused it.
I bet this quake had little or no influence in the remaining marine and local ecology. Sure, the corals may be a bit shaken but they're used to this stuff... but not the 2 degrees celsius this century already heated their ocean...
Also the reason so many lives are lost is because we are overpopulating the world at a terrible rate!! If you get a chart comparing the total population of the area and the victims you'll see the ratio is very, very small... almost like a driving accidents/per population in a developed country... I mean, what's 10.000 or 15.000 people compared to 400.000.000 in the sorrounding area??? I'm surprised that there's no little victims actually..., imagine if the quake had hit land areas at it's epicenter... 8.9 magnititude!! It's that bad really....
It's not that I'm not touched by the disaster...it's just that I'm growing an increased awareness that many of those so called "disasters" (but not this one) are more and more natural and logic to me. It's like, no tree can die naturally and fall in peace anymore...it's bound to hit someone or something human in the process... and we see it as a loss for us, not the natural world. It's sad...

Sonic Wanderer · Post by **Sonic Wanderer** » 27/12/2004 - 10:42

Death toll reached 23 000 people, and rising.

Yes, Dave, that's true. If we were not as overpopulated as we are, less people would actually be killed even in this kind of disaster. But as things are as they are, this is still a plain, genuine disaster.

Vosla · Post by **Vosla** » 27/12/2004 - 14:38

Sonic Wanderer wrote:Death toll reached 23 000 people, and rising.
Yes, Dave, that's true. If we were not as overpopulated as we are, less people would actually be killed even in this kind of disaster. But as things are as they are, this is still a plain, genuine disaster.

I fully agree.

Somebody had the theory that this planet may support upto 10, maybe 13 billion people. We are close to that number and not even draconic politics like the one-kid-only-family in China could do anything about it as you can't explain that to the developing countries where having a great number of kids is your only chance of personal insurance if you are old and can't work anymore.

Zoci · Post by **Zoci** » 27/12/2004 - 20:51

Besides all the sadness around the world i've to deliver a really crazy witness-interview i read in the german newspaper "Hamburger Morgenpost" today:

Chris Arend (bookpublisher) and his friend Curt Gerritzen (stadium announcer of the soccerclub HSV Hamburg), both from Hamburg/Germany, stay like thousands other tourists in Phuket/Thailand for some relaxing holidays... ...As they see the waves coming from the ocean they ran for their lives. Curt fell between the running crowd and was injured at his leg, but his friend Arend helped him up and after 200 meters more running they were reaching a hotel, a safety place... ...The ending words Arend told the paper: "We're still shocked, but for Curt Gerritzen it's close to the worst case. His last holidays are 4 years ago. It was the 11th of September 2001 - in New York..."

Hard stuff, uh?!??! X-Files anyone...? Or only a mischance? This guy now can celebrate three birthdays every year.

Infamous · Post by **Infamous** » 28/12/2004 - 13:02

I dont think curts going to leave his native land for a while.. he seems to take bad luck with him.

god bless all those that died, and condolences to their families.
its a mysterious, dangerous and wonderful thing is nature... and we like to fk with it on a regular basis.. this sort of thing is payback.

every aerasol can, vehicle, drilling rig etc contributes to what happened today.. but then we cant live without them.. so cach 22

"we as a race will eventually consumn the earth and then ourselves"

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 28/12/2004 - 13:12

If it haddent been there, it would have been the San Andreas fault.... Scientists have been predicting a huge quake for the last 40 years ever since the San Fran one back in, err, was it 1902 ? 1904 ? - around that time anyway....

I hope the old writer Arthur C. Clarke (2001 A Space Oddysey) is ok, he lives on Sri-Lanka...

Sonic Wanderer · Post by **Sonic Wanderer** » 29/12/2004 - 18:20

This is unbelievable. Reports now, death toll 80.000 people!!!

The cousine of a childhood (and present) friend of my wife's is missing down there. Anyone else here got attachments to this disaster?

Dumper · Post by **Dumper** » 29/12/2004 - 20:08

I found this link if anyone would like to donate to help these unfortunate people.

http://www.dec.org.uk

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 29/12/2004 - 20:29

Also Red Cross:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/homepage.asp

Post by **tas** » 30/12/2004 - 7:28

they say the final figure could be 100,000

Infamous · Post by **Infamous** » 30/12/2004 - 7:44

the after effects of this are yet to be seen.... THATS the scary part.