Weblogsky: Monster Quake

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Monster Quake

A humongous earthquake 100 miles off the West Coast of Sumatra, 8.9 on the Richter scale, slammed southeastern Asia and killed ~~more than 4,800~~ 10,000 people via massive tsunamis triggered by the quake. Even more interesting, this is the second 8+ quake in a matter of days, the first being an 8.1 quake 305 miles north of Macquarie Island near Antarctica on December 23.

This latest quake is the strongest since March 1964, and the fifth strongest since earthquake measurements began in 1899.

Update: The death toll keeps climbing, and CNN has set up a special Tsunami Disaster Section. Latest figure is 11,500 dead.

jon posted this at 10:14 AM
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Comments

I have a friend who has been doing peace volunteer work in Sri Lanka. I last heard from him on the 24th. His blog is at http://ltbrin.typepad.com

I'm very very worried about him, and stunned how little attention this disaster has in US news coverage. It is numbing.

Posted by: Nancy White | December 27, 2004 9:19 AM

Happy to report that your friend has posted he's safe! (Sent you an email, too.) The news coverage started picking up when the extent of the catastrophe sunk in. I think we like to pretend such things aren't real... denial of the kind that gets us in trouble, I think.

Posted by: Jon Lebkowsky | December 27, 2004 4:16 PM