Earthquake and Tsunami in Chennai

I had taken a break and gone to visit my parents over the Christmas long weekend. So I escaped the fury of the earthquake and the following tsunami that hit Chennai on Sunday. It is estimated that Chennai alone lost around 250 people and the state of TamilNadu took the major brunt with more than 2500 people losing thier lives.

Reading about the over all toll of this incident (around 1600 people lost their lives all across Asia), one of the questions that come to mind is that Indonesia nearest to the epicenter lost around 2000 people, while a single state in India lost more. That gives you an idea of the people density on India. This is far higher in coastal areas as fishermen prefer to live along the costs so that they can go to sea early in the morning.

Coming back home today morning, I was quite releived to find that my house, which is 15 minutes walk form the beach, was safe with the sea water nowhere near it..:-)

My trip from the railway station to my house, went by the beach road, which gave me a look at yeasterdays area of diaster - Marina, the second longest beach in the world. Except for a few boats and vehicles scattered around, it looked very calm and normal. Around 50 policemen walking around, being the only signs of what was a major tragedy that happened 24 hours ago.

Update - Aftershock quakes have been reported from Andamans. More aftershocks are expected over the next two to three days.

Update - I have setup a blog Tsunami India to help people get information on friends and relatives in India.

Comments

[Sahil Malik]

I echo your thoughts on population density in India. Another facet is outdated construction techniques. An earthquake in India kills thousands, wheras the same earthquake in USA kills no more than 50 - because we still insist on constructing houses in earthquake prone regions with bricks or stones and houses by the coast with grass and leaves.

Anyway, enough of these disasters and we will learn. ..

[Colt]

Hey Anand, glad to hear from you and know you're safe..! How's other .NET buddies in India?

[Cyndi Miller]

I am looking for a friend of mine named Mohiuddin Mazumder. Do you know of a way I can find out if he and and the family survived? Thank you.

[mathew]

send me lots of stills of tsunami plz

[Debra]

I am looking for Nafisa Ghadial who is an Occupational Therapist that went to India during the Christmas break. I have not heard from her and she was due back to Florida the end of January. I don't know exactly where she was going in India but I am concerned of her well being. If anyone has any news of her please respond.
Thank you.

[Debra]

Nafisa has returned safely to the U.S. Thank the Lord.

[R.manogari]

hai?

[Moorthy]

I am looking for a long lost friend Sithambarampillai Arunachalam -(short name ARUN), who moved to India from Badulla, Sri-Lanka - during 1983 civil disturbances. He is about 46 years old. The last known address was in Puttur.

If anyone knows anything about him please let me know.
e-mail: [email protected]

Thanks
P. M. Moorthy

[scientist,g.ponmudi]

Earthquake is caused due to the movement of the land is a myth. The most important thing that is missing in this view is that there is no explanation for why earthquake occurs in the centre of the land instead of the peripheral area.

Actually the land is rising in different places. This is the reason why earthquakes occur only in the central parts of the land.

To be specific, after an earthquake occurred on September 30th of 1993, in the village named Killari, it was found that the land had risen about three feet in height.

This shows that the rise of the land is the cause of the earthquake.
Earthquake is the effect of the rise of the land

On September 30th 1993, the earthquake that hit the village, killari, situated in central part of India resulted in the death of more than eight thousand people and raised the land surface about three feet high.

This elevation was seen in an area of around two kilometers.

Why did the earthquake occur?

The quake occurred only in killari, situated in central India and left two kilometers of land area raised. This proves that the earthquake occurred only due to the rise of the land.

Apart from this, the pictures taken by the satellite before the quake showed that the temperature of killari had also risen and the pictures taken after the quake showed it to be normal.

After the earthquake occurred, on the borders of Andhra and Karnataka white colored smoke emitted from the ground.

Why did the land rise? Why was the temperature more? Why did the land emit white colored smoke?

We know that the molten rock material called magma is found inside the earth as we have seen it coming out through volcanoes.

In the same way, when the molten rock, lava flows on the earth’s surface, we can see the condensed steam and other gases in the form of white colored smoke.

As the water and other hot gases are eliminated as steam, the molten rock cools down and turned in to rock.

In the same way when the molten rock inside the earth starts cooling, water and

Other hot gases come out in the form of white smoke. Due to this, the temperature of the land rises.

Moreover when the molten rock cools and as the water and hot gases get released, the rocky plates that are formed are of less thickness.

For example: water has a higher density and the ice cubes formed from it have a lower density and float on water.

Likewise, the molten rock material which has a higher density produces rocky plates which have a lower density and move above the level of the molten rock.

In the same way, when new plates are produced by the molten rock material, they start moving upwards there by pushing the plates which were already formed. On account of this movement, the edges of the plates rub against each other thereby causing earthquakes.

For example, in 1356 an earthquake occurred in the city Basel in Switzerland which is situated in central Europe .

In the same city, an organization which produces electricity using the heat from underground, drilled two holes of five meters each on the earth in the year 2006.

The project was to send cold water through the first hole which would be changed into steam using the heat of the molten rock and pushed out through the second hole and by rotating dynamos; this would be converted into electricity.

But, on the eighth day after the water was sent inside the earth, in the same place, the Richter scale recorded an earthquake with an intensity of 3.4.

Even if atom bombs are tested underground, earthquakes do not occur. How could the water which seeped inside produce an earthquake?

This clearly shows that the water which seeped inside the earth cooled the molten rock which in turn formed new plates that rose up and caused the earthquake.

Yours faithfully,

Scientist, g.ponmudi.

Chennai

[Anu]

How deep into the surface of the earth do we find this molten magma flowing? and does this flow uniformly throughout the world.. even under the sea?