sumatra just got two strong aftershocks

[nadinbrzezinski]

Hope the rescuers remain as safe as possible.

A little insight into this. When you are doing rescue work in a collapsed building, doing confined space rescue, you are working in a space that is all but stable. It takes guts to go in. When the ground continues to shake, borderline structures can go down, and structures that already did, can further pancake, crushing both survivors and rescuers.

So if you believe in a god, a prayer is in order. If you don't, a good luck is in order.

It takes guts, special guts, to do that.

Yes, I got the training, and did go into a couple collapses, but never ever due to a quake.

[eShirl]

1. yikes "BREAKING NEWS: 6.8 magnitude quake hits off western Indonesia, USGS reports"

breaking headline at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/


WTF IS GOING ON??

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. wow. 6.8 is strong

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Geologists theorized that global warming

would lead to more and stronger quakes, hilarity ensued.

They were on the money as usual. Less pressure from ice on one side of the world, and more pressure on the crust on the oceans. That is what is going on.

[Ellipsis]

6. Trench warfare

Oceanic trench that is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deepest_ocean_trenches

Tonga's one of em.


.

[MiniMe]

2. Wow, a 6.8 aftershock

That is big. Could be a major earthquake in itself. And they have had quite a few 5 and greater. Samoa has had quite a few strong aftershocks too. A good link for 5.0 and greater http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

[Warpy]

4. The only good thing is that they're both 200+ miles south

of Padang, which is where the epicenter of the first quake was.

The bad news is that hospitals there have collapsed.

Those poor people.