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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  Warning lights flash for next tsunami: scientists Mon Dec 19 2005 08:34:57 ET Lightning does strike twice in the same place. That is the warning of seismologists as they assess the risk of another Indian Ocean tsunami. That may seem an exaggeration, AFP reports. Surely the gods of nature vented all their anger when they ripped open the Earth's crust last year and extinguished more than 200,000 lives? The December 26 earthquake off the northwestern coast of Sumatra had a magnitude of 9.3, making it the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded, surpassed only by a 9.5 monster in Chile in 1960. The quake wrenched up the sea floor along a 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) line, unleashing waves that towered up to 15 metres (49 feet) and scoured the coastlines of the northern Indian Ocean. More than 220,000 people were killed, almost two million left homeless and economic damage ran into billions of dollars. The energy release was so extraordinary that exceptional waves even washed up on beaches in Peru and Mexico, 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from the epicentre. The Earth rang like a bell: vibrations were measurable for weeks afterwards. Could it happen again? Earthquake experts are usually loath to make predictions, but on this question they ditch their traditional reserve. They say: Not only will a tsunami-generating quake happen again, it is likely to occur at almost the same place -- and at any time. "All the warning lights are flashing bright red," says Paul Tapponnier, a researcher at the Paris Institute for Planetary Physics (IPGP). |
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