Re: Cornell Feb 10 Seminar to Explore Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami

From: don findlay (don_at_tower.net.au)
Date: 02/05/05 

Date: 4 Feb 2005 16:17:52 -0800

baalke@earthlink.net wrote:
> http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Feb05/TsunamiSeminar.bpf.html
>
> Cornell Feb. 10 seminar to explore Sumatra earthquake and tsunami
>
> FOR RELEASE: Feb. 2, 2005
>
> Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
> Office: 607-254-8093
> E-mail: bpf2@cornell.edu
>
>
> ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University will present a seminar, "The
> Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami: The Science Behind the Headlines,"
> Thursday, Feb. 10, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in room B14 of Hollister Hall.
> It is being held by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
> and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
>
> The public is invited to attend without charge.
>
> Philip Liu, professor of civil engineering, and Muawia Barazangi and
> Dan Karig, professors of earth and atmospheric sciences, will make
> presentations.
>
> Liu recently returned from a scientific fact-finding trip to Sri
> Lanka on the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami. Karig will provide a general
> overview of the geographical and geological setting of the region
> devastated by the tsunami.
>
> Barazangi will explain how the tsunami-triggering earthquake occurred
> near Sumatra along a major convergent plate boundary, where the
> oceanic Indian plate is subducting beneath the continental Southeast
> Asia plate. He says that as much as 750 miles of the contact zone
> between these two tectonic plates ruptured during the earthquake,
> with an average slip of 49 to 66 feet. "The occurrence of such
> mega-thrust, great earthquakes [magnitude 9] is infrequent,
> approximately once every 200 years," Barazangi says.
>
> "It appears that no such great earthquake occurred in the recent past
> along the northern continuation of this plate boundary from the
> Andaman Islands to Assam in northeast India. This is a matter of
> utmost concern for the future, considering that Bangladesh is located
> very near this segment of the plate boundary, and that most of this
> nation, with a population of over 130 million, lies very close to sea
> level," Barazangi says.

This is very true. Since we have it on the very best authority (nasa)
that the mountain belts are pushing down on the subduction zone and
forcing the crust down on the downgoing side, India is destined to
slide right under the Himalayas, since it is still sliding off the
spreading ridge. An average further slip of 50 - 70 feet of slip is
bound to generate more fear than Larry's book, that Stuart got so
stroppy about. Evidently if one is going to generate fear (in these
days of terrorists and insurgency) then you gotta do it rite! Of
course since India is locked in there by its horns, 50-70 feet of
movement is guaranteed to be quite spectacular when it happens. Me for
the front row, and an investment in leg prostheses.

>
> He also will examine the tsunami threat to the eastern Mediterranean.
> Compounding this problem is a lack of warning system in the region,
> he says.

Wow! you have to hand it to these boys. Terror knows no bounds.
Anyone got a volcano they want to spruik? Or a bit of heavy-duty
weather coming up?

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Taken from NBC L.A.
    ... Christmas 2004 weakened the San Andreas fault. ... "The long-range influence of the 2004 Sumatran-Andaman earthquake on ... At least 28 people in the Solomon Islands die in a tsunami ... A magnitude-6.1 earthquake triggers a tsunami off Java ...
    (sci.geo.earthquakes)
  • Kunichs Awesome Resume
    ... major damage from a tsunami are relatively minor at best. ... Tsunami-Generating Earthquake Near U.S. Possibly Imminent ... The Cascadia subduction zone, a 680-mile fault that runs 50 miles off ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Cornell Feb 10 Seminar to Explore Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami
    ... Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami: ... Barazangi will explain how the tsunami-triggering earthquake occurred ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Data not share on Tsunami earthquake sound record
    ... instruments that monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban ... The microphones that picked up this earthquake were located in Diego Garcia, ... Tolstoy and other scientists have had some access to data from the ... But because of the deaths and destruction of last year's Asian tsunami, ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Taken from NBC L.A.
    ... researchers say the 9.0 earthquake that hit Sumatra ... Christmas 2004 weakened the San Andreas fault. ... At least 28 people in the Solomon Islands die in a tsunami ... A magnitude-6.1 earthquake triggers a tsunami off Java ...
    (sci.geo.earthquakes)