The Great Boxing Day Earthquake Changed Earth's Surface Gravity

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The data coming in from the masive earthquake a year and a half ago continues to astonish everyone. This was a significant geological event on many levels. This affected the earth very deeply as we can see from satellite images. A large area susided which has affected many communities on the edge of the ocean and a good section of ocean has risen significantly.

The images taken from space show the earth was damaged quite significantly that day.

Science Daily Source: Ohio State University
Posted: August 6, 2006

Satellite Data Reveals Gravity Change From Sumatran Earthquake
For the first time, scientists have been able to use satellite data to detect the changes in the earth's surface caused by a massive earthquake.

The discovery, reported in the latest issue of the journal Science, signifies a new use for the data from NASA's two GRACE satellites and offers a possible new approach to understanding how earthquakes work.
The research paints a clearer picture of how the earth changed after the December, 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, the 9.1-magnitude temblor in the Indian Ocean which caused a deadly tsunami killing nearly 230,000 and displacing more than 1 million people.

Our planet is very lively so this scar will heal over time. The fact is, we have never seen such a great event in the last 100 years. Thanks to many scientific instruments especially space satellites, we now can see very clearly, the many changes these events cause. Another reason for NASA to focus more on the primary planet in this galaxy: Earth. Hello?

The earth continues to ring from that event. Just last month, I noticed the 4+mag earthquakes were finally falling off to the normal background rate but this last week has been a very busy one. My daughter was in California when the 4.2 event occured the other day, for example. At the far end of the Great Rift running along all of California and Mexico, there was a 5.8 event. As I keep saying, this is a very active time for this planet, relatively speaking during my lifetime, and California has not had its turn, yet. More time to prepare, I would suggest.

Visit the IRIS site here if you want to see earthquakes on a daily basis. It also looks like the site of the Boxing Day quake is very busy still. A deep unrest is at work there, just last month, some it unzippered some more along the same fault zones. The latest major quake was a 6.7 at the Vanatu Islands in the Pacific Ocean north of Australia. They, like the Adaman Islands just north of Indonesia, have been shaken quite a bit lately. No tsunamis. These are rather rare but very devasting events.
Click on image to enlargeClick here for the Krakatoa web page.

Also, tsunami waves reached the Western coast of Java within an hour after the explosion of Krakatoa. The village of Sirik was almost entirely swept away by these waves. It took also about one hour for the destructive tsunami waves to reach Anjer where a 10 meter wave completely overwhelmed the lower part of town. At Tyringen, waves ranged from 15 - 20 meters in height, while at Merak, the waves reached a maximum of 35 meters.

It took approximately 2.5 hours for the tsunami waves to refract around the western end of the island of Java and to reach Batavia (Jakarta), the capital of Indonesia on. Waves of 2.4 meters, were reported there with a very long period period of 122 minutes. By the time the tsunami reached Surabaya, at the eastern part of Java, the reported wave was only 0.2 meters. The tsunami travel time to Surabaya was 11.9 hours.

The Krakatoa tsunami was the biggest one to be recorded until the Boxing Day Quake. I was expecting one of the major volcanoes in the Pacific rim to have a major, very major eruption in the next five years. Right now, it seems many volcanoes are burping up lava, gas and dust but none are going into hyper-drive...yet.

Today's volcano event is in the Philippine Islands.

By TERESA CEROJANO

MATANAG, Philippines Aug 8, 2006 (AP)— A volcano in the Philippines showed more signs of erupting Tuesday, belching ash three times overnight as officials evacuated tens of thousands of villagers.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert for the 8,118-foot Mayon volcano to Level 4 on Monday the second highest level after six explosions sent ash columns up to a half mile high. The explosions prompted the mandatory evacuation of about 35,000 villagers in Albay province, about 210 miles southeast of Manila on Luzon island.

Officials also extended the government's permanent "danger zone" from 4.3 miles to 5 miles on the volcano's southern side.

Merapi has quieted down a tad but is still pondering its options. The Philippines has many dangerous volacanoes and in 1992, Mt. Pitumbo blew up enough dust and dirt into the stratosphere, it changed the earth's climate for several years. I noticed right away for the previous winter, thanks to global warming, was quite hot and we were expecting a very hot summer and after the volcano blew, it got really cold here, we were wearing coats in June and the winter was very snowy and very bitter, we got so many feet of snow, I couldn't reach the top of the wood piles and had to dig down to them! And we had to use sleds to get down the mountain because we couldn't snow plow out! This is before we got Sparky, our Alpine draft horse.

Mayon volcano is also spewing out lots of sulfuric dioxide. Now, that is pollution. Big time. The history of our planet's atmosphere has always been this tension between plants producing oxygen, animals producing CO2, volcanoes producing all sorts of chemicals and gases plus global warming or ice age variations. Anyone expecting our planet to be monotonously stable is insane. This place is always changing, all the time.

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Comments

[Dr. Richter]

I blame the Jews.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

I feel sorry for you, buddy.

[Dr. R.]

Sumatra-Andaman. Obviously a Jewish name!

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Only if you are speaking the wrong language.

[Rodney Reid]

Don't have the reference right now, but there was an 8.1 earthquake two days prior to the Sumatran quake. The 8.1, centered between Austrailia and Antartica, was the world's largest earthquake in four years.

History really does forget the runners up!

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Oh, I very much remember it for I wrote about it elsewhere! I was watching for a really BIG one the very day it happened. I knew it was going to happen.

[Dr. Dr.]

Sumatra-Andaman. Levi Sumatra-Andaman. They changed his name to Leonard Andrews at Ellis Island.

When did you change your name from Hitler?

[JSmith]

"The images taken from space show the earth was damaged quite significantly that day."

Why "damaged"? I wouldn't say "damaged", just "changed". Tectonic events aren't good or bad; they just ARE.

[Rodney Reid]

Hi JSmith,

You're right, it was changed... Everything that is happening right now is really jusr a change.

Viewed from the point of earth as static though, it warped a bit that day compared to previous years (maybe decades? this 21st century tech to ferret these changes out is new to us)

(Course it's not static!)

[fj]

this was very unhelpfull with locating the areas effected by the boxing day tsunami, 26 12 2004.

[KURT]

hay nako philiphines i also know that the direct effects of volacanism are:1destruction of property 2eartquakes 3lahars4TSUNAMIS

[Volcano earth news]

Feel sorry you....
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