POWER FULL EARTHQUAKE CHINA

BEIJING — The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck western China Wednesday rose to at least 617 people on Thursday, with 10,000 more injured as many remained buried under debris, Chinese state media reported. 
People gathered in open areas after the quake hit. 
The quake, which struck at 7:49 a.m. in Qinghai Province, bordering Tibet, had a magnitude of 7.1, according to China’s earthquake agency. At least 18 aftershocks measuring more than 6.0 followed throughout the day, government officials said, according to Xinhua. 


China’s earthquake agency said the quake centered on Yushu County, a remote and mountainous area sparsely populated by farmers and herdsmen, most of them ethnic Tibetans. The region, pocked with copper, tin and coal mines, is also rich in natural gas. 


As with the devastating earthquake two years ago that killed 87,000 in neighboring Sichuan Province, many buildings collapsed, including schools. But with Qinghai’s far smaller and less dense population, the toll is likely to remain far lower. 


A seismologist, Gu Guohua, said in an interview with the national broadcaster CCTV that 90 percent of the homes in the county seat, Jeigu, had collapsed. The houses, he said, were of “quite poor quality,” with many constructed of wood, mud and brick. 


The dead included at least 56 students and 5 teachers who were crushed in the rubble of collapsing schools or dormitories, the English-language government newspaper China Daily reported. Of that number, 22 students — 20 of them girls — died in the collapse of a vocational school, the newspaper quoted the deputy chief of the Yushu education bureau, Xiao Yuping, as saying. 


Among those still missing were 20 children buried in the wreckage of a primary school, and as many as 50 people were trapped beneath a collapsed office building that houses the Departments of Commerce and Industry, according to news reports. 


“We’re in the process of trying to rescue the students,” Kang Zifu, a local fire department official, told CCTV on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re hurrying to help them.” 


He said at least 32 survivors had been pulled from the debris. 


The prefecture that includes Yushu is on the Tibetan plateau, with a population that is more than 96 percent Tibetan and overwhelmingly poor. Many villages sit well above 16,000 feet, with freezing temperatures not uncommon in mid-April. By Wednesday evening, temperatures in the county seat had already dropped to 27 degrees, and snow and sleet were forecast in the coming days.  


“The most important thing now is that this place is far from everything, with few accessible rescue troops available,” Mr. Wu said. “I feel like the number of dead and injured will keep going up.” 


Officials said that rescue efforts were stymied by a lack of heavy equipment. Medical supplies and tents, they added, were in short supply. Phone calls to local government offices went unanswered Wednesday afternoon. 


State news media reported that 700 paramilitary officers were already working in the quake zone and that more than 4,000 others would be sent to assist in search and rescue efforts. The Civil Affairs Ministry said it would also send 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets. 


Workers also were rushing to release water from a reservoir after cracks were discovered in a dam, according to the China Earthquake Administration. 


Genqiu Renqin, a teacher who lives in Sichuan Province, about 60 miles from Yushu, said he felt the earth shake and immediately drove to see if relatives who lived near the epicenter were safe. 


“Almost all of their homes were badly damaged, but luckily no one was seriously injured,” he said, speaking by phone from a town about 25 miles from the county seat. “All the people in the area are camping out for now.

WHAT IS TSUNAMI AND EARTHQUAKE

With a massive 8.8 earthquake striking near Chile and sending a tsunami across the Pacific, Hawaii readies itself for what could be a devastating strike. The island state has a history of being stricken by tsunamis, some generated locally but many from far off areas.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 50 tsunamis have been reported in Hawaii since the early 1800’s. Of those seven caused major damage. Five of those were generated from areas outside the state.

A tsunami is a series of waves that start out as a disturbance under the sea (such as an earthquake), and then increase in intensity. The disturbance causes the waves to travel outward in all directions. In this article, you will learn more about the causes and effects of tsunamis.

The motion of a tsunami is similar to what happens when you toss a rock in a lake and ripples start to form and move about the water. The time it takes for the waves to fully form is between 5 and 90 minutes. Sometimes, the wave speed in the open ocean will average 450 miles per hour.
Tsunamis that have reached a height of more than 100 feet have been recorded. The closer the waves get to reaching shallow coastal waters, the more normal they appear. The speed also decreases. If a tsunami closes in on the coastline, other conditions arise. It may grow in height and when it reaches the shore – it can be highly destructive.

An earthquake is not the only natural occurrence to cause a tsunami. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, and even meteorites have been known to cause an earthquake. A tsunami can start hundreds or even thousands of miles away from coastal areas. Location can play an important role in the effect of a tsunami. The regions at a great risk for suffering a tsunami are found less than 50 feet above sea level and within one mile of the shoreline.
Tsunamis cause a succession of high and low water levels. These kinds of crests and troughs usually occur about 10 to 45 minutes apart.
 The highest death toll from a tsunami happened on December 26, 2004, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 occurred under the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck off the coast of Indonesia with a wave that affected the coastlines of nine different countries about the Indian Ocean. It was estimated in January 20, 2005 that the tsunami took the lives of at least 226,000 people. The total death toll is a number that will never be known.
Other Facts About Tsunamis

A 1964 earthquake in Alaska caused a tsunami with waves that measured between 10 and 20 feet high. The effects of the tsunami were felt along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. In Alaska, more than $84 million in damage was incurred and the tsunami killed 123 people.
Since 1945, more people have lost their lives as a result of tsunamis than as a direct result of what happens with an earthquake.
Tsunamis are rare along the Atlantic coastline. However, a serious earthquake that took place on November 18, 1929 in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. A tsunami developed and as a result, a great deal of damage and deaths took place at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
The most common way that a person dies during a tsunami is by drowning. Other causes of death include flooding, polluted water supplies, and damaged gas lines.
A tsunami that occurred in 1946 sent waves of 20 to 32 feet to crash into Hilo, Hawaii. The downtown part of the city flooded and in the process, 159 people were killed.
An estimate 10,000 people died in Hong Kong when a typhoon accompanied by a tsunami took place in 1906.
The Tsunami Warning Centers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Palmer, Alaska, keep an eye on the disturbances that can lead to tsunamis. When a tsunami is detected – it is tracked. Tsunami warnings are then issued for areas in danger.

The worst tsunami to strike Hawaii in modern history occurred in 1946 and was caused by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. The tsunami struck without warning and claimed the lives of 170 people, mainly near Laupahoehoe and Hilo. Wave heights near Hilo reached 30 feet while the maximum height was 55 feet at the northern tip of the island near the Pololu Valley.

Waves as high as 35 feet struck Hilo, Hawaii and caused 61 deaths and $75 million in damage. Hilo Bay itself was struck the worst where 600 acres of land inland were inundated and only the most reinforced buildings survived. On Maui, the Kahului area was struck the worst where a warehouse and some houses were destroyed.

Tsunamis caused closer to the epicenter of a quake are often more deadly as there is less warning. Two locally generated tsunamis have also caused damage in Hawaii, one in 1868 and another in 1975. The 1868 tsunami destroyed two villages while waves from the 1975 tsunami claimed two lives.

As the wave approaches land, it slows but they increase in height
and the distance between them shrinks. (Wikipedia)A tsunami is typically generated by the movement of tectonic plate boundaries that move abruptly causing an earthquake. As one of the plates moves upward, it pushes the water up and outwards.

 

POWER FULL EARTHQUAKE KARACHI

KARACHI: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as New Delhi and Dubai, but doing little damage in the sparsely populated region.
The quake was more than 80 km underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Balochistan province, near the Afghan and Iranian frontiers, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Akbar Durrani, interior secretary of Balochistan province, said there were no reports of casualties.
“There has been partial damage to house in villages near Dalbandin but there were no casualties,” he told Reuters.
Naeem Shah, head of Dalbandin police, said he had no reports of any injuries or deaths.
“There were no human losses,” Shah said. “The walls of a few houses and offices collapsed but there are no reports of any casualties.”
The USGS said the epicentre of the quake, which struck at 1:23 a.m., was 55 km west of Dalbandin, a town of about 15,000 people, and at a depth of 83 km.
Poor communications delayed reports from the remote area but despite the strength of the shock, its depth seems to have limited damage. The USGS had first said the earthquake was much shallower.
People in India’s northwestern border state of Rajasthan said cracks appeared in the walls of rural dwellings.
US forces in Afghanistan were unaffected by the quake, according to preliminary reports from the US military.
People flee their houses
In Quetta, the capital and largest city in Baluchistan, 330 km northeast of the epicentre, a woman died at a hospital from a heart attack following the quake, hospital officials said.
In the major Pakistani port of Karachi, 400 km away, people rushed from their homes as the quake hit.

“I felt like my bed was shaking. I got up and ran to check the children,” said Masooma Rizvi. “It was very scary. I have never felt anything like this before.”

The Pacific Tsunami Center said the quake had not triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

A major quake of this magnitude, if at a shallow depth and close to population centres, is capable of causing widespread and heavy damage. Pakistan is still reeling from devastating floods last year that left more than 10 million people homeless.

At least 160 people were killed when a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Balochistan, about 60 km north of Quetta, in October 2008.

In 2005, a 7.6 magnitude quake 95 km northeast of Islamabad killed more than 70,000 people.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake in 1935 hit Quetta, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people, making it one of the deadliest quakes to hit South Asia in recorded history..

powerfull disaster history

Netherlands, 1228
Estimate: 100,000 lives lost from the flooding after some dykes broke.

Most of Europe and beyond, 1347-1350
Approximately 25 million lost their lives through the "Black Death" - the bubonic plague. Between 25 and 33% of the entire population of Europe at that time, plus millions in Asia and North Africa lost their lives.

Western Hemisphere, mostly 16th - 18th centuries
Untold millions of lives of American Indians were lost through the various sicknesses brought over from Europe (to which they had no previous exposure or resistance.) It's very difficult to get figures on this that are not politically infected one way or another (very high or very low).
China, 1556
The second deadliest earthquake was in the Chinese province of Shaanzi on February 2, 1556. It killed 830,000 people.
Indonesia, 1815
Mount Tambora (volcano) on Sumbawa Island released about 50 cubic kilometers of magma over at least 500,000 square kilometers of Indonesia and the Java Sea. That eruption and the resulting tsunami took at least 10,000 lives. But the famine and disease that followed took another 82,000 lives - total: over 90,000.
China, 1876 - 1879
The deadliest drought in recorded history was in China between 1876 and 1879. Rivers were dry, so most crops and livestock died. There was no food production in a 1-million km2 area of 9 provinces. The drought caused the death of an estimated nine million people.
Caribbean, 1902
Martinique, a small French colony in the Caribbean, has a volcano "Mont Pelee" which unleashed its fury and wiped out the town of St. Pierre. Only one survivor - pictured on right: a prisoner in a basement cell. (There's a good chance he got his life right with God before that day was over!)  But there were actually two others who also survived. see their amazing stories  Around 30,000 people were killed.
China, 1920
In the north China there was a drought that caused 20 million victims and took at least 500,00 lives.

China, Gansu - 1920
Gansu, China is hit with an earthquake measuring 8.6 and kills around 200,000 people.

Japan, 1923
A third of Tokyo is destroyed and much of Yokohama in an 8.3 earthquake which between 140,000 and 200,000 people.

China, 1927

An earthquake 7.9 - hit Nanshan City and took about 200,000 people.

China, 1931
A flood on the Changjiang River took at least 145,000 people (other estimates go over a million, but we have not confirmed that).

China, 1932
Another earthquake, this one northwest Gansu Province, killed about 70,000 people.

Bangladesh, 1970
In 1970, a cyclone and related floods killed about 500,000 people. With winds of up to 230 km/h, the cyclone crashed into the heavily populated coastal area of the Bay of Bengal, where several river deltas normally provide fertile land. The terrible winds produced massive waves, which wiped out many entire villages. Millions of people were left homeless in this country that is one of the most densely populated and one of the poorest in the world.
China, Tangshan - 1976
The worst earthquake damage in modern times was in northeast China in 1976. It was July 28 when a massive quake, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale, shook the industrial mining city of Tangshan. Officially 255,000 people died, and another 164,000 were severely injured. But others (unofficial, but perhaps more accurate?) estimate that about 655,000 perished. Some ninety per cent of the buildings were destroyed. It took at least ten years and massive investment to rebuild the city.
Armenia, 1988
An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastated Armenia in 1988. At that time Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union. The town of Spitak was destroyed and it took the lives of all of its residents. In Leninakan, Armenia's second largest city, eighty per cent of the buildings collapsed, and over 100,000 people perished there.

Earthquake of 9.0 and the resulting tsunami creates one of the world's worst disasters.  It does major damage to: Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania, Seychelles, Bangladesh, and Andaman.  Deaths: Between 235,000 and 285,000.

Haiti, 2010
Earthquate - still counting. Most estimates now exceed 220,000 dead.Approximately

A POWER FULL EARTHQUAKE

Depth       =  10 Km
RMS         =   1.00 sec
Gap         =  63 degrees
95% confidence ellipse: - Semi major = 8.7 Km
                        - Semi minor = 5.6 Km
                        - Azimuth of major axis =  27 degrees

Strong 7.6-Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Southern Asia

Hundreds Killed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Oct. 8) - A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistan-India border Saturday reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and flattened an apartment building, killing hundreds of people in both nations. Pakistan's army called the devastation "a national tragedy."
In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward. Communications throughout the region were cut.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the military to extend "all-out help" to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm. Helicopters took troops to damaged areas, but landslides were hindering rescue efforts.
Army soldiers and local volunteers were rescuing people from under the debris of collapsed houses. Telephone lines were down. Bridges had developed cracks, but traffic was passing over them.