Breaking: 7.5 Magnitude earthquake in Darwin, Australia!!

[rooboy]

update: this apparently was a very deep earthquake and is not expected to have caused a lot of damage. There is almost zero chance of it causing a tsunami.

Darwin has been rocked by an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, Geoscience Australia said on Wednesday night.

The government agency which measures earthquakes said the quake struck at 8.21pm (CST) or 9.51pm (AEDT).

Its epicentre was in the Banda Sea near Indonesia.

There were no immediate reports of damage but the quake was felt across the city and at least 140km from Darwin, Geoscience Australia spokesman Chris Thompson said.

"We've got a preliminary report of an earthquake ... of magnitude 7.5," he said.

"They are preliminary figures and we will be confirming that shortly."


http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Darwin-rocked-by-earthquakes/2005/03/02/1109700543376.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Is Darwin heavily populated?

Glad to hear you're okay, rooboy!:hi: Sounds like a big tumbler!

[robbedvoter]

2. Fallwell will say it's punishment for being called Darwin...

[OKNancy]

3. LOL

Good one!

[eShirl]

4. bwhahaha!

oh, too good

seriously though, damn that's a strong earthquake.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Jeez! And at night, too. That would be even more frightening.

Hope you'll let us know what's going on, rooboy.



Here's a simplified map. Uh, oh, Darwin's on the coast! Anything like a tsunami there?

On edit:

No sleep all night. Please Forgive my misspelling, and lack of understanding of the nature of tsunamis. Not fully focused.

[Sinistrous]

6. "...epicentre was in the Banda Sea near Indonesia." Tsunami?

[rooboy]

7. No tsunami... too deep underground to cause one. n/t

[Sinistrous]

8. Good. Thank you.

Notes on an earthquake in the Banda Sea in 1938 Here.

[GregW]

9. Jeebus, the poor bastards

First their entire city gets wiped away in a cyclone (Tracy) on Christmas Day, 1974 ... now a 7.5 earthquake.

When do the locusts arrive?

[rooboy]

10. There isn't much damage, apparently.

It's actually not even close to leading the news over here, as it turns out.

[emad]

11. 7.2-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Indonesia

Guardian

Wednesday March 2, 2005 2:31 PM


TOKYO (AP) - A powerful earthquake struck eastern Indonesia late Wednesday, meteorological agencies said, and was felt as far off as Australia. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The magnitude 7.2 quake, which did not trigger a tsunami, was centered about 200 miles southeast of Ambon in the Banda Sea, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the earthquake's magnitude at 6.8.

Officials at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said no damage or injuries were reported, perhaps because of the quake's depth - 120 miles under the seabed - and distance from the mainland.

It was not immediately clear if residents in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, felt the quake. But people in Australia's northern city of Darwin said they could feel their houses shaking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4836015,00.html

[jmcgowanjm]

12. Seismic Monitor says 6.8 Banda Sea N of Darwin

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/last30days.phtml?region=Polynesia&latN=25&latS=-25&lonE=220&lonW=90

4.6 Eastern Arizona?

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[bobthedrummer]

13. The earth's core may be becoming unstable.

[jmcgowanjm]

14. article somewhere-Sumatra aftershocks should have diminished by now

Instead they seem to be crawling North along the
Andaman fault.

[havocmom]

15. Why not, the crust & all us crustaceans are

:evilgrin:

[bobthedrummer]

16. No, I'm an erect walking bi-ped!

[havocmom]

17. Just figured: if living in America makes one American, then living on the

crust...

And didn't you see the comic strip "B.C." ? "Clams got legs!"

[Megahurtz]

18. Wow,

That's definitely big enough!:scared:

[Maple]

19. The original plate slippage

that caused the tsunami, is travelling toward North America.

You can see it on any earthquake map.

It is losing energy as it goes, but there are still effects from it

There was one on the ocean floor off Vancouver Island the other day.

This won't settle down for a long time.