"Most powerful earthquake in 40 years."

[AJ_77]

I hope nobody has friends vacationing in Coastal Thailand this season. You gotta hate seeing headlines like, "Nearly 10,000 die as tidal waves sweep Asia."

Many tourists were victims as well...

[Beverly]

Chris went for coffee at his regular haunt this morning and was talking with the coffee guy. He recently spoken to his mother who was going on a boat ride. Then he heard the news of the earthquake and resulting tidal wave Even though I don't know the coffee guy, I am praying his mother wasn't killed

[AndyL]

I guess I better stock up on my indonesian rock and ... A clarkii's eh? I've heard hermit supplies are still lagging due to this summers caribean disasters.

Andy

[Samw]

That is one unbelievable natural disaster.

I always wondered how our coastal cities would stack up against tsunamis. I was just reading about them not too long ago (about the time we had our puny Earthquakes here) and was imagining what it would be like to see one coming at you. Could it happen in Vancouver if a 9.0 quake hit off the Pacific Ocean?

4,000+ dead in Indonesia alone. 4,500+ in Sri Lanka. Thousands more in surrounding countries. There's no escape. Imagine going to Phuket or some other beach resort in SE Asia and relaxing on the beach and then all of a sudden, Earthquake comes, followed by Tsunami and then whoosh.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by AndyL

I guess I better stock up on my indonesian rock

Andy

actually this will have broke a lot more stuff off the reefs so there will be a lot more rock available. Sucks that it caught so many by surprise though.

Steve

[bluetang]

Entire towns vanished. So sad. We could not human'ly imagine what the survivors are going through right now. Say a prayer will ya...

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

According to geologists, if the Lower Mainland was hit by an earthquake 8.0 or higher, Richmond & all the Fraser River Delta lands would liquify & disappear into the water. Not a pleasant thought, eh.

It happened so suddenly too that almost nobody had any warning. Makes me realize again that for all our technical know-how, we are but ants compared to the might of Mother Nature (ie. God).

[Beverly]

Here is a quote from an Asociated Press article in this morning's paper on the earthquake:

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Instiute.

Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth rotation.

[StirCrazy]

the sad thing was American scientists new about the quake 1.5 hours be for it happened, but couldn't get through to warn anyone.

Steve

[Samw]

Unbelievable. 23,700 deaths and counting. Steve, are you sure they predicted the earthquake 1.5h before? Or do you mean they knew the tsunami was coming after the quake occured?