Tsunami Relief Appeal

[muddyweb]

I don't think there is anyone who doesn't know what is going on in Southern Asia, but just in case you feel the want to help, and don't know how :

http://www.dec.org.uk/

[Andy.]

It's terrible, all those loss of lives.

Imagine a similar earth quake just off us in the North Sea or Atlantic, just makes you think how devastating nature can be.

[thermidorthelobster]

Remember to donate to a UK charity, that way they can claim back all the income tax you paid on it :)

[Vam]

It's terrible, all those loss of lives.

Imagine a similar earth quake just off us in the North Sea or Atlantic, just makes you think how devastating nature can be.

Yep, for all the cxxp we throw at her, she will always have the last word.

Helen

[thermidorthelobster]

In the UK, we're fortunate in that we're a long way from any destructive plate boundaries (the mid-Atlantic ridge is 2 plates spreading, not 2 plates colliding) so we're unlikely to experience a major earthquake or tsunami, unless something fairly unusual happens.

This doesn't make it any better for the rest of the world, of course, but we're relatively fortunate over here in terms of lack of devastating phenomena such as earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes etc.

[turtle]

The appeal goes on.... for Men Womens, Childs and Baby clothes - shoes, bedding/ towels etc.

Milton Keynes has started up a collection point for the above items, I have started to collect from the locals in my areas and transport to the depot, if anyone in or around MK can help please contact the MK appeal depot on 01908 311805, they will be glad of you help in anyway large or small. If you have any items to donate, I will be glad to collect and transport to the depot on your behalf.

[strapping young lad]

in all this devastation i am just glad that it wasnt man made


can you imagine the reaction if the loss of life was caused by man..

doesnt bear thinking about

[Wanderer]

The cynic in me wonders if years of underground testing of nuclear weapons help the situation. Where are all of these Asian countries, India, Pakistan, Korea, China etc testing their weapons at the moment.
 :(

Ed

[strapping young lad]

it makes you wonder

i read a report about it that said the sea bed rose 100ft in seconds and now the isle of sumatra sits in a different place geographically


 :shock:

[Wanderer]

It does humble me. I am so glad that I  was born and live here.

We find things to moan about but life is still pretty good compared to so many other people's lifes.

Ed

[thermidorthelobster]

Fortunately, it's fairly easy to differentiate between explosions and earthquakes using seismographs, because with an explosion the seismic waves spreading from the centre are all compression, whereas with an earthquake you get a cross-pattern with compression on opposite corners, and rarefaction on the other opposite corners.  If that makes sense.  So with something like this, it's pretty easy to tell if it's man-made.

That's not to say that nuclear testing doesn't trigger earthquakes, but the energy released by an earthquake like this one is many orders of magnitude greater than a nuclear explosion, so it's not that likely that a nuclear test would make much difference to the timing of an earthquake.  Small earthquakes have been known from nuclear tests, but nothing on this scale.  Plate boundaries are big old things involving unimaginable amounts of mass and forces.  Also, nuclear powers tend to err on the side of caution and do their testing some way away from plate boundaries, on the whole.

Interestingly, there was an incident in Australia a few years back (1993 I think) which bore all the seismographic hallmarks of a nuclear test, which is a bit odd since Australia weren't doing one.  Strange coincidence (or perhaps conspiracy theory) that the area it happened in was owned by the Aum Shinrikyo cult that subsequently released nerve gas in the Tokyo subway.  As it happens it was probably a meteorite, but I'm not sure if anybody ever found the crater & confirmed it all.

[thermidorthelobster]

BBC Online has some fairly stunning images of the devastation from the air:  particularly the second and third.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4142425.stm