Indonesia faces new mega-tsunami

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(Those uninterested need not comment please......., thank you.)

 

This is off topic but feel most compelled to post the article helow.. Several

months before last year's tsunami, i'd received info from a scientific group

but due to a million & one tasks, the info was overlooked and neglected much to

my deepest regrets......

 

The warning in that particular text accurately predicted inevitable tsunami

tragedies. Having traveled or lived in, at one time or another in some of the

affected locations, words simply cannot express overwhelming grief when the

tsunami wiped out millions of human lives and left others in trauma and limbo.

 

 

Apparently now, Indonesia "could be" hit next. The Indonesian Archipaelago

consists of around, or more than 3 million islands. Parts of Sumatra is also

Indonesia. Sumatra has more "animistic" (not that this is a favored word in

today's Indonesia) tribal clans and innumerious indigenous minorities whose

"Pagan" beliefs and traditional practices date back to ancient times. Some of

their bloodlines can be traced back to the Ural-Altaic peoples of old..

 

""""If """" the tsunami hits Sumatra, it will be an immeasurably massive loss of

world heritage, indigenous cultures and unique Pagan traditions, some of which

are never written down in books but passed down the generations from father to

son, mother to daughter (in matrilineal tribes).

 

If anyone here has friends living in relevant locations as mentioned in the

article below, please at least pass the info on. Your friends or relatives

then have a choice to decide for themselves whether to leave or remain where

they are.

 

Om Namah Shivaya

Simone

 

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Indonesia faces new mega-tsunamiDavid Adam, science correspondentThursday June

9, 2005The GuardianAnother catastrophic giant earthquake similar to the one

that caused carnage across the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day last year is lurking

off Indonesia, say scientists.Recent seismic activity in the region has piled

dangerous levels of stress onto a section of the Sunda trench fault zone west

of Sumatra. This makes a large earthquake there far more likely and could

trigger another devastating tsunami.The warning comes from a team of

seismologists at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. Professor John

McCloskey, who led the research, said: "This is a very scary event we're

concerned about. The potential for a devastating tsunami from it is significant

and real. I hope it doesn't happen, but the indications are

really strong that it will, maybe even soon."Giant earthquakes can raise stress

in surrounding rocks, making other seismic slips more likely. In March the

Ulster group looked at the effects of the Boxing Day event and predicted

another giant earthquake would strike the region. Less than two weeks later, on

March 28, an adjacent region of the fault gave way. The magnitude 8.7 earthquake

killed an estimated 2,000 people, mainly on the island of Nias.The Ulster team

has now used the same technique to assess the aftermath of that second quake.

Their analysis shows stress in the region to the south of the March 28 rupture

has increased by up to 8 bar, priming it for a massive megathrust quake where

one tectonic plate slips beneath another.The scientists cannot predict exactly

when the next earthquake might strike, but say local people ought to be

prepared. There are plans to deploy sensors to detect tsunamis throughout the

Indian Ocean,

but no system is yet in place.The Mentawai islands face the greatest threat.

Although stress increases are higher near the Batu islands, an earthquake last

struck there in 1935. The Mentawai section of the fault has not slipped since

1833, when records show the resulting giant earthquake caused a large

tsunami.Prof McCloskey said his calculations suggest the risk of another

massive earthquake is now greater than it was before March 28. "There are

several indications that this one looks like a stronger interaction than the

last. The actual stresses we measure are more or less the same but the ripeness

of the fault now is of real concern." The recent increase in the number of small

and medium earthquakes in the area is also ringing alarm bells.A magnitude 6.3

earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast yesterday but there were no reports

of damage or casualties. It sparked panic in Sinabang, the main town of

Simeulue off Sumatra,

but did not trigger a tsunami. Indonesia has been rocked by repeated tremors

since the Boxing Day event that killed more than 176,000 people in 11

countries, and left about 50,000 missing and hundreds of thousands

homeless.Tony Blair is to push for an international network of scientists to

watch the world for potential natural disasters. It would also identify the

gaps in the understanding of the natural world and look at new ways to help

protect the most vulnerable populations."The events of Boxing Day 2004 have

demonstrated that we ignore extreme natural hazards at our peril," said Sir

David King, chief scientific adviser to the cabinet, who set up the working

group."We must take up the challenge of identifying such threats, understanding

the processes and mechanisms that underpin them, and developing effective

systems to mitigate their impact”.===========

 

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