Devastating Indonesian Quake 'Still to Come'

[Louisiana1976]

The earthquake which devastated the city of Padang in Sumatra, Indonesia, this week, killing more than 1100 people, may have been only a hint of worse to come. Since 2004, geologists have been predicting a far nastier earthquake in the region – a shallow tremor that will rip the sea floor apart, trigger a devastating tsunami and kill far more people.

"Another earthquake is on its way, and all it will take to trigger it is the pressure of a handshake," says John McCloskey, a seismologist at the Environmental Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

Padang experienced a magnitude-7.6 earthquake on 30 September, just after 5 pm local time. Images of terrified relatives waiting to identify dead bodies, their T-shirts clutched over their noses to mask the stench, military officials stalking between bright yellow, zipped-up body bags and centuries-old Dutch colonial mansions obliterated in an instant have flooded around the world.

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17907-devastating-indonesian-earthquake-still-to-come.html

[jwirr]

1. And not too far away there is a chain of volcanoes - 5-6 - that are

always active. All setting on the edge of plate. If they are correct it could be a big one.

[Pharlo Finesworth]

2. Predicting big earthquakes is a pretty safe endeavor. Predicting WHEN is a very different

kettle of fish. :D
Let's see...I hereby predict an asteroid will hit the earth and kill every living thing on it.
Actually, I can guarantee it.
See?
;-)