Tsunami watch issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean near India's Andaman Islan

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: CNN

CNN) -- A tsunami watch has been issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean near India's Andaman Islands, authorities said.

The watch covers India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The quake struck at 1:55 a.m. (3:55 p.m. ET), about 163 miles (262 km) north of Port Blair, Andaman Islands, and 225 miles south-southwest of Pathein, Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Its focus was about 20 miles below the Earth's surface. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground.

"Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and sometimes a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located usually no more than a thousand kilometers from the earthquake epicenter," said the bulletin from the tsunami warning center.

"It is not known that a tsunami was generated. This watch is based only on the earthquake evaluation. Authorities in the region should take appropriate action in response to this possibility."

The estimated tsunami travel time would be an hour or less to the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, according to a bulletin issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/10/india.earthquake/index.html

---

link to full NOAA report provided by grantcart (post 5):
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/indian/2009/indian.2009.08.10.200514.txt

[mod mom]

1. 7.7:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=3&id=indian.2009.08.10.200514

[Skink]

2. Surf's up.

[grantcart]

3. wow

[Parker CA]

4. That's a serious shaker. Hopefully no tsunamis reach shores in exposed regions. nt.

[grantcart]

5. we should know within an hour how bad it will be

message has estimated time of impact for possible Tsunami

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/indian/2009/indian.2009.08.10.200514.txt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Shit. How big was the --

offshore quake that caused the big Christmas tsunami? :scared:

Checked: it was a 9.1.

7.7 is still pretty damned huge.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Each unit on the Richter scale represents a factor of 10 ....

so a 7.7 quake (updated from OP) would be about ~1/12th the intensity of a 9.1. But anything in that range is considered a major quake.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. The biggest I've been in was 6.9 --

that was plenty big for me. :scared: The idea of 7.7 just makes my stomach churn.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And a 6.6 magnitude one in Japan (new one, not the one yesterday)

Strong quake hits central Japan, with minor tsunami observed

A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck central Japan early Tuesday, with minor initial waves of tsunami observed in the region, the meteorological agency said.

The quake hit at 5:07 am (2007 GMT) at a depth of 20 kilometres (12 miles) in the Pacific off Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo, the Agency said.

"I felt both strong horizontal and vertical shaking," Atsushi Imai, a city official at Izu, eastern Shizuoka, told Japan's public broadcaster NHK.
...
As an observed tsunami, the ocean surface surged by some 40 centimetres (16 inches) at Omaezaki, Shizuoka, the weather agency said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6vBi4FuhYcnpwWUK8dtuMF876gw

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Japan has been rocking and rolling this week --

I love watching footage from Japan's office building security cameras -- most of the people just sit there, doing their work while the building is doing the rumba around them!

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Map here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/10/india.earthquake/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

[AsahinaKimi]

12. Tsunami's scare me to death...

Earthquakes you might be able to take shelter, same with a Hurricane or Tornado. But if a wall of water is coming, there is no place to hide, and you can only hope you can high enough above it.. to prevent from being swept away to your death.

I still have the occasional tsunami nightmare.

[starroute]

13. The earthquake pattern has been strange the last few weeks

I like to check the IRIS Seismic Monitor first thing every morning, just to give myself a sense of being grounded in reality before I get caught up in the day's politics. (http://www.iris.edu/seismon)

Most mornings, there are about half a dozen new quakes of magnitude 4.5 to 5.5 or so, which an occasional larger one.

But recently, there have been many days with no quakes at all or only one. And the quakes that do occur are almost all unusually large.

Right now, the map is showing four new quakes from the last 24 hours. The 7.6 in the Andaman Islands. A 6.6 in the Santa Cruz Islands, east of New Guinea. A 6.4 off the coast of Japan -- which is an aftershock of yesterday's 7.1. And a 5.7 off the northern coast of New Guinea. There was also a 5.5 yesterday near New Guinea.

And that's it. I can't recall ever seeing so many large quakes over a two-day period combined with no smaller ones. There was also the 6.9 in the Gulf of California a week ago.

Strange times.

[InkAddict]

16. Indeed...metaphorically, of course...

"To many third-world observers it seems self-evident that earthquakes are the new hegemonic geopolitics, the tool by which the superpower quake-makers intend to shake and break the emergent economies of the South, the Southeast, the Rim. The boastful triumphalism of the West during the revolutionary upheavals of 1989-90 has come back to haunt it. Now all earth tremors are perceived as Euro-American weapons What were once classified by insurance brokers as acts of god are now close to being treated by entire states as acts of war, and the altruism with which ordinary Western citizens contribute to disaster relief funds, and even the indefatigable efforts of the international aid agencies, look like post-facto attempts at salving the guilty consciences of the powerful after the damage has been done. India, Pakistan, Israel, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and China all announce the alloction of gigantic "plate war" budgets. A new kind of weaspons scramble has begun." - Salman Rushdie

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

[Amos Moses]

14. Looks like the watch was canceled.

Maybe they'll just get a few small waves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yX_uVQ9OKA

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Thanks for the update. nt