Asia Tsunami Watch

An updated site for news and information on earthquakes and tsunamis experienced by areas affected

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Pakistani Charity Under Scrutiny in Financing of Plot

British and Pakistani investigators are trying to determine whether the group of Britons suspected of plotting to blow up as many as 10 commercial airliners may have received money raised for earthquake relief by a Pakistani charity that is a front for an Islamic militant group.

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Moderate quake hits Mexico City, no damage reported

A moderate earthquake hit Mexico City on Sunday, the National Seismology Service said, although the movement was barely felt.

It followed a 6.0 magnitude tremor on Friday which wobbled buildings across the city and revived memories among residents of a devastating 1985 quake that killed thousands.

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Kashmir quake relief link to terror network

Questions are being asked about a possible Kashmir connection to the London bomb plots. The two brothers reportedly at the centre of the investigation, Rashid and Tayib Rauf, from Birmingham, are both British citizens of Kashmiri origin.

Rashid Rauf is one of at least 17 people being held in Pakistan in connection with the alleged plot. Very little substantial information has emerged from Pakistan, but there is one moment in recent history when British Kashmiris had direct contact with militant Islamic groups in Pakistan, and there was nothing secret about it.

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Earthquake hits south New Zealand

n earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale at 16:29 local time (4:29 GMT) Sunday was widely felt over a large part of the central and upper South Island of New Zealand.

According to the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, local earthquake monitor network, the Earthquake was centered 30 kilometers east of Murchison and 10 kilometers west of St Arnaud, at a depth of 100 kilometers.

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Moderate earthquake jolts Indonesia's Aceh; no reports of casualties, damage

A moderate 5.5-magnitude earthquake has jolted the Indonesian province of Aceh but caused no damage or casualties, the meteorology agency here said.

The quake, centered 20 kilometers under the ocean floor and 73 kilometers northwest of Aceh capital Banda Aceh, struck at 03.46 pm (0846 GMT), said Fauzi from the agency's headquarters.

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Saturday, August 12, 2006

5.5-magnitude earthquake jolts Simeulue, Aceh

Thousands of people panicked when an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale jolted Sinabang village, Simeulue District, Aceh Province, in the wee hours of Saturday.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which rocked Sinabang at around 3.54 a.m., was located at 0 km of Sinabang, head of the Mata Ie meteorological and geophysics office (BMG) Syahnan, said here on Saturday.

The tremor caused no damages in buildings but only forced the local residents to rush out of their homes.

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Moderate earthquake strikes off Taiwan's east coast

A moderate earthquake struck off Taiwan's east coast today, the Central Weather Bureau said. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The 5.7-magnitude quake was centered under the ocean 42 kilometres southeast of Taitung, the weather bureau said.

Taitung is in Taiwan's sparsely populated southeast, about 250 kilometres south of the capital, Taipei. The earthquake was felt across most of southern Taiwan, the bureau said.

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Prufrock: Small earthquake hits tower tycoon

IT WAS all smiles from property tycoon Simon Halabi as he prepared to sell his stake in London’s yet-to-be built Shard of Glass skyscraper and hopefully slide another cool £100m into his wallet. But behind the smooth exterior, I hear that Syrian-born Halabi, now Britain’s 18th-richest man, was in something of an uncharacteristic flap.

Just after the deal was announced, Halabi was told that there was a problem with Peter Everden, his new right-hand man on the development of some office buildings. Prufrock had learnt of allegations that Everden’s CV was not 100% complete.

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Friday, August 11, 2006

Earthquake rattles Mexico

An earthquake rocked central and western Mexico on Friday, forcing office workers and residents to evacuate large buildings in the capital but causing no major damage.

Panicked students fled out of a university library, fearing a repeat of a deadly 1985 quake that killed thousands.

"For the moment there are no reports of emergencies. Only panic attacks. It's minimal. No buildings fell," said a spokesman for Mexico City emergency services.

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Magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes off Indonesia-USGS

A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early on Saturday, according to preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake hit at 3:54 a.m. local time about 364 km (226 miles) off Banda Aceh, the USGS said, and was at a depth of 10 kms.

Dailin Wang, an oceanographer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, said the quake -- which his center measured at a magnitude of 6.3 -- was not large enough to pose a danger of a tsunami.

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A Connecticut earthquake was an Internet revolution

The defeat of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman by Connecticut liberals was the equivalent of an electoral earthquake. That it was made possible by a new wave of citizen and voter interest fueled by the Internet strongly suggests a revolution in America's political life is now under way.

We welcome it, as it signals a potential end to the ebb tide of apathy and ignorance that has infected politics at all levels, much to the nation's detriment.

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

China hosts int'l earthquake rescue drills

Rescuers search the site after a simulated earthquake during the skill demonstration by the China International Search and Rescue Team in the Asian-Pacific Regional Earthquake Exercise 2006 in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, on Aug. 7, 2006.

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Counties To Share Resources If Earthquake Hits

Arkansas' emergency manager says the state is working on a plan allowing counties along the New Madrid Fault line in eastern Arkansas to partner with counties in the western part of the state.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management Director David Maxwell says the state is working on a pilot project that would pair one county along the fault zone with another on the other side of the state. Maxwell says the partnership would allow the counties unaffected by a potential earthquake to help assess damage, offer shelter and provide other services.

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Strong earthquake hits near Vanuatu

The United States Geological Survey announced that a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck near the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

The earthquake occured at 22:18:55 UTC on August 7, only 75 km (50 miles) east-southeast of Luganville, or 215 km (135 miles) north-northwest of the nation's capital, Port-Vila. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin, saying the earthquake was of magnitude 7.0, but did not expect a widespread tsunami.

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Before the ’04 Tsunami, an Earthquake So Violent It Even Shook Gravity

Two identical satellites, collectively known as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or Grace, travel one behind the other in a polar orbit separated by about 130 miles.

By recording small changes in the distance between them when their orbits are deflected, the satellites provide data used to calculate variations in the earth’s gravitational field.

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Groningen rocked by 'record' earthquake

An earthquake shook the north of the Netherlands early on Tuesday morning. Measuring 3.5 on the Richter Scale, it was equal in strength to the strongest earthquake on record in the northern Netherlands. This took place in Alkmaar five years ago.

Tuesday's quake in Groningen at around 7am was registered by all seismic stations in the country. It was centred on the town of Middelstum which lies in the middle of the gas fields in the province.

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5.1 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Central Java

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook Cilacap district in Central Java at 3:07am Tuesday, according to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG) Agency.

BMG spokesman Subayo said Tuesday the epicenter of the earthquake was 41 km under the seabed and 242 km southwest of Cilacap.

However, he added that there was no report of a tsunami because it could be only caused by an earthquake with an intensity of up to 6.3 on the Richter scale.

"We are still waiting for further information from Cilacap about the impact of the quake," he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

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Satellite Data Show Gravity Change from 2004 Sumatra Earthquake

Scientists funded by NASA, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Ohio Supercomputer Center have used satellite data for the first time to detect changes in the Earth's surface caused by a massive earthquake.

The discovery signifies a new use for the data from NASA's two gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) satellites and might offer a new approach to understanding how earthquakes work, according to an August 3 press release from Ohio State University (OSU).

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