EARTH CHANGES

Quake biggest natural disaster to date

An earthquake, the fourth largest recorded since 1900 and measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, occurred after a rupture on the Indian Ocean seabed caused by the violent grinding of two tectonic plates. Huge waves swept some 7000 kilometres as far as Africa. The overall death toll currently is estimated at near 30,000. Man more people are expected to die of epidemics in the wake of the tsunami.
Indonesia's Aceh province bore the brunt of the temblor, hit at point-blank range and then battered by a tsunami.

Earth's axis altered

The quake was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said today. The temblor may have moved small islands as much as 20 metres, according to one expert.
"That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP.
"Some of the smaller islands off the south-west coast of Sumatra may have moved to the south-west by about 20 metres. That is a lot of slip."
The north-western tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra may also have shifted to the south-west by around 36 metres, Hudnut said.
In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said.
"We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due to the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," Hudnut said.

All the planet is vibrating

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.