Samoa & Indonesia Earthquakes - September'09

Terrible news and pictures coming from a beautiful part of the world. Death toll unfortunately continues to rise, with several Australians included in the death toll.

On a side note, another quake has occurred, this time off Sumatra, measuring 7.6.

Edit: U.S Geological Survey put the strength at 7.9.

Edit2: Have combined both quakes as the Indonesia one is developing.

any Tsunami warnings for Sumatra, Sniper?

No threat to Australian coastline, however a warning has been placed for the Coco Islands. Checking out Sumatra and Indo warnings now...

IDY68032

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

MEDIA:
No use of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal [SEWS]
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE AND FREQUENT BROADCAST
********************************************************************************
TSUNAMI WARNING NUMBER [1] FOR COCOS ISLAND
Issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre [JATWC] at 5:33 PM LT on
Wednesday 30 September 2009
********************************************************************************

TSUNAMI THREAT TO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

********************************************************************************
SUMMARY:
Tsunami warning for the marine environment for COCOS ISLAND.

Possibility of dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and foreshore flooding
for several hours from 06:30 pm [UTC+6.5hrs] Wednesday.

Sea level observations HAVE NOT confirmed a tsunami has been generated.

Next update due by 7:03 PM LT on Wednesday 30 September 2009
********************************************************************************
DETAILS:
Tsunami waves are more powerful than the same size beach waves, with the first
wave not always the largest.
Do not go to the coast to watch the tsunami. Check that your neighbours have
received this advice. Boats in close should return quickly if possible. Boats
in deep water should stay offshore until further advised.

For emergency assistance, call the AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE on [08] 9320 3444

For a repeat of this warning or further details visit the Bureau's web site
www.bom.gov.au/tsunami.
********************************************************************************
TSUNAMI SOURCE:
An undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.9 occurred at 4:46 PM LT on Wednesday 30
September 2009 near SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA [latitude 0.860S longitude
99.870E ]
********************************************************************************
The JATWC is operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience
Australia

Tsunami alert has been issued for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.
No further details available at the moment!

Latest info is that the quake struck only 45km off the coast of Padang (which is about 500km SSW of Kuala Lumpur). Quake may have been on same fault line as the 2004 Box Day Tsunami.

Newsbreak has it hitting Samoa with 3 -4 metre waves reaching 1km inland and reported fatalities already So sad. I know this has been talked about probably all day, but am only catching up on news now, I had no idea, thanks for filling those of us with heads in the sand in (busy day at work).

Apparently the tsunami warning has been cancelled. Still some significant damage reported with Padang population almost 1 million.

Hi Lily. Was that from the most recent Earthquake, or this mornings one?

---------------
LATEST TSUNAMI DETAILS - BoM

Padang 0.25m

--------------------

Hopefully there is no tsunami like this morning.

Hey Jake, it was the morning one (Samoa, I eventually got to watch the news last night & catch up lol). Glad the Padang quake didn't cause another one, though the quake damage alone looked pretty nasty.

I've read reports that they are expecting the death toll in Padang to exceed 1,000 and may even exceed the toll of 6,000 registered in the Yogjakarta quake in 2006...

All communication to Padang is blocked at the moment due to landslides and bridge collapses.

With such a densely populated area, and the information coming through, a death toll in excess of 10,000 would not surprise.

The area is currently experiencing heavy rain which will only exacerbate the situation.

Oh thanks Lily.

Yeah I am so glad there was not other tsunami. Imagine, two in the one day... And I too have heard reports this morning that the quake may cause a rise to 10,000 people.

Are these events increasing? I personally believe so.

So were both of these quakes along the same fault line? News is not sounding good out of Padang or Samoa. Little six year old Australian girl and another 2 year old NZ/Aussie amongst the dead Breaks your heart.

Jake, not sure if activity is on the increase or whether the quakes are occuring closer to populated areas. I believe that the media focus has increased since the 2004 Boxing Day event (and rightly so).

A second quake has struck Sumatra today, measuring 7.0.

Checking the Us Geological website , it has officially been recorded at magnitude 6.8. This quake was some 150km SSE of Padang, and occured on the land, instead of at sea.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009mfaf.php

Latest death toll is now 464. Reports that in the capital, Padang, some 500 buildings either collapsed or were badly damaged. As expected in these situations, communications are poor, thus slowing the repsonse and return of information/advice.

Another earthquake near Tonga. Measuring 6.3 magnitude. From what I could see on the PAC Tsunami site there was a watch out, but cancelled quickly.

More details here:

http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=378537