Earthquake

Citation

(2006), "Earthquake", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315cac.004

Earthquake

9 March 2005South Africa

Some 42 South African miners have been trapped underground, following an earthquake south-west of Johannesburg. Rescuers were digging to save them, said a spokesman for gold mining company DRDGold. The company’s 3,200 miners in the area are all being evacuated following the magnitude five earthquake. Large earthquakes are not common in South Africa and one seismologist said it could have been triggered by underground mining operations. “This is most probably a mining-induced event… it is a gold mining area,” said Council for Geoscience seismologist Eldridge Kgaswane. He said that mine work triggered small earthquakes on an almost daily basis. A DRDGold spokesman said 13 miners had been injured. The epicentre of the earthquake was near the town of Stilfontein, 155 km south-west of Johannesburg, experts said. A block of flats for elderly people in the nearby town of Klerksdorp had to be evacuated after the earthquake left it unfit for human habitation, the emergency services said. Pupils at two schools in the town were also sent home after walls were damaged. Police spokesman Louis Jacobs said about 40 people had been slightly injured and many shop windows broken in the two towns.

22 February 2005Iran

At least 100 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in a strong earthquake in Iran’s south-eastern Kerman province, according to the head of the local hospital. “A hundred bodies have been recovered from the rubble, there are 5,000 injured,” the head of the Kerman university hospital, Ali Sharifi, told state radio. “But many villages have still not been reached by the rescue services and we think therefore that the toll could get a lot higher,” he added. Television reports say the quake destroyed several villages. The US Geological Survey says the earthquake, which struck at 05:55, local time, measured 6.4 on the Richter scale and was located 60 km north-north-west of the city of Kerman. France’s Strasbourg Observatory of Earth Sciences said the quake struck with a magnitude of 5.7 on the open-ended Richter scale.

23 February 2005. The powerful earthquake that hit central Iran caused an estimated $80 million in damage, officials said today. Iranian Interior Minister Abdel Wahed Lari told the Iranian News Agency, IRNA, 50 villages were damaged in yesterdays quake “and the destruction varied between 20 and 100 percent.” He said the death toll is expected to rise above 500 as rescue operations continued. The Iranian government has not appealed for any international aid or help.

23 February 2005. Rescuers have pulled two women alive from the rubble of a mountain village in south-eastern Iran, along with dozens of corpses, as the death toll from yesterday’s earthquake headed towards 550. Thousands of survivors of the magnitude 6.4 quake, many angry at the slow pace of relief efforts, faced another bleak night on freezing and rain-soaked slopes amid the mud and rubble that used to be their homes. Iran’s government, which initially said it could cope without foreign assistance, changed tack and said it would take help from abroad. Iraj Sharifi, head of the medical university in the provincial capital Kerman, said 520 bodies had been identified so far. Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said the toll would probably reach 550. Other officials said it could be higher. “Fifty villages are badly damaged, four or five of which are 100 per cent destroyed,” he said during a tour of the area. Hampered by fog, snow and badly damaged roads, soldiers and aid workers were making slow progress with rescue efforts. Unable to bring in heavy machinery, rescuers used shovels and their bare hands to sift through the ruins. A few dozen angry villagers, some brandishing sticks and stones, had earlier confronted a convoy of official cars carrying the interior minister on his tour of the area. Despite earlier claims that it had no need of foreign assistance, Iran’s government requested and received about $180,000 worth of tents and blankets from Japan.

25 March 2005Indonesia

A strong earthquake struck off the tsunami ravaged coast of Sumatra in northern Indonesia, Hong Kong seismologists said today. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The 5.9-magnitude quake hit near the coast at 01:10, GMT, today, the Hong Kong Observatory said. The tremor was centred about 90 km north-west of Banda Aceh.

26 March 2005. An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia late today, the Hong Kong Observatory reported. The epicentre of the quake was initially determined to be over the eastern part of the Banda Sea, about 230 km south-east of the city of Ambon, the observatory said in a statement. It struck at 1547, GMT, it said.

27 March 2005. Two strong earthquakes rocked Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku today, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the local geological agency said. The first quake of magnitude-6.4 struck just about 40 minutes after midnight; the second, measuring 6.0 magnitude, came at 07:40 hour, said Benny Sipollo of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency office in Ambon. Both quakes were centred under the Banda Sea, just over 150 miles north-west of Ambon, about 140 miles beneath the earth’s surface.

28 March 2005. A massive 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra today, close to where a quake triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia, residents and officials said. The latest quake had the potential to cause a “widely destructive tsunami” and authorities should take “immediate action,” including evacuating coastlines within 600 miles of the epicentre, the Pacific tsunami warning centre said. Malaysia urged residents along parts of its west coast to evacuate to higher areas. Thailand, India and Sri Lanka also immediately issued tsunami warnings in coastal areas. Sirens were ringing in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Trincomalee, residents said. A spokesman for the US Geological Survey said the quake struck 125 miles west-north-west of Sibolga, Sumatra, or 880 miles north-west of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, at 16:09, UTC, today, close to where the 9.0 magnitude quake struck in December. Tens of thousands of people ran out of their homes in many parts of Sumatra, and in Singapore and Malaysia, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. “It was very strong,” said a telephone operator in the Sumatran city of Medan, in western Indonesia. “We all ran out of the building.” An NGO official in Banda Aceh, the town worst hit by the December 26 tsunami, sent out a telephone message saying thousands of people fled their homes and headed for higher ground after feeling what he described as “a very big earthquake”. Panic spread in many areas along the west coast of Malaysia, the Bernama news agency said. “It felt stronger than on December 26,” said Arumugam Gopal, a resident of the town of Penang. US Geological Survey spokesman Don Blakeman said today’s quake was considered a “great earthquake” because it was larger than a magnitude 8.0. He said it was an aftershock from December’s temblor but was a “very serious earthquake in its own right”. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake had the “potential to generate a widely destructive tsunami in the ocean or seas near the earthquake”. “Authorities can assume the danger has passed if no tsunami waves are observed in the region near the epicentre within three hours of the earthquake,” it added.

29 March 2005. Indonesia’s key oil and gas operations on Sumatra Island were not affected by the 8.7-magnitude earthquake that damaged Nias Island late yesterday, a government official said today. “Operations at Exxon Mobil’s facilities are running smoothly,” said Trijana Kartoatmodjo, a deputy chairman of upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas. Exxon Mobil Corp. operates large gas fields and a natural gas liquefication plant on the northern tip of Sumatra, while the local unit of eChevronTexaco Corp. operates large oil blocks in central Sumatra’s Riau province. Indonesia also has a 120,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery in Dumai, Riau.

29 March 2005. An initial warning of a possible tsunami in a south-westerly direction, towards Mauritius, was rescinded in the early hours of today. According to Government reports, as many as 1-2,000 people may have been killed as a result of the collapse of many buildings on Nias.

29 March 2005. A 3 m wave smashed into the Indonesian island of Simeulue, off the coast of Sumatra, causing extensive damage shortly after a massive earthquake, a military official said. Up to 2,000 people are believed to have died in the earthquake. The military commander in Aceh, close to the epicentre of the quake, says he has received reports that the wharf at Simeulue’s main port was badly damaged. Endang Suwaraya says waves have also affected the island’s airport in the coastal town of Sinabang. An Acehbased journalist who made contact with the island says the main hospital in Sinabang has been destroyed and cannot be used. He says there are unconfirmed reports of 25 dead on the island. Indonesia’s Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, says up to 2,000 people are feared dead in collapsed buildings on the island of Nias, near Sumatra. Witnesses on the island say the ocean surged 30 m inland. “The water level rose higher than last December, reaching up to 30 m,” said a woman, speaking from Nias. It is reported that there are no buildings left intact in the main town in southern Nias, Teluk Dalam. “Roughly it is expected between 1,000 and 2,000 died,” Mr Kalla told El Shinta news radio of the quake. In the Sumatran city of Medan, Erni Ginting, a spokeswoman for the disaster centre for Aceh and North Sumatra, told reporters: “The official death toll stands at 322.” She said all the fatalities were on Nias, 220 of them in Gunungsitoli. Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said authorities had designated an airport at Sibolga on the mainland, opposite Nias, as the hub for relief flights as the control tower on the island’s airstrip had collapsed.

31 March 2005. A new earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the north-west of Sumatra Island overnight. There is no tidal wave danger there. The epicentre was in the sea area 280 km west of the city of Banda Aceh, the Hong Kong seismological centre said. There have been no reports about victims and destruction.

Based on Health Ministry Dept up to 29 March 1800, the earthquake claimed 431 lives, Gunung Sitoli 200, Teluk Dalam 130, Simeuleu Island-Aceh 100, East Aceh 1. Based on Health Ministry Dept the refugees from all areas reach 2000, mostly in Nias and Nias Selatan excluding Aceh and mainland of Sumatera. Infrastructure damages reported: Gunung Sitoli Port. The wharf was reported totally demolished. Tello Nias Island Port and building were reported demolished. Simeuleu Port was reported demolished. Land Transportation between Gunung Sitoli City – Nias City to some adjacent Sub-districts were reported to be halted including connection from Binaka Airport to city of Gunung Sitoli. Binaka Airport itself was reported to have sustained damages in 38 points including apron and control tower, totally demolished. Public facilities such as electricity, phone lines and water supply totally halted.

1 April 2005. Bad weather is hampering relief efforts on the Indonesian island of Nias, the area worst hit by Monday’s earthquake. Rescue workers have abandoned the search for survivors in the main town, Gunung Sitoli, and will now concentrate their efforts on Nias’ remote villages. The UN has confirmed that more than 500 people were killed in Monday’s earthquake off Indonesia. However, up to 1,000 are feared dead intotal. Today, international rescuers said they had abandoned their search for survivors in Nias’ main town of Gunung Sitoli. “We found one person alive yesterday morning, that was the last person. It’s been 24 hours since then and there’s been nothing,” UN search and rescue official Olaf Lingjerde said. “After three days the survivor rate goes down, especially when you have this weather,” he said, referring to the heavy rains which have hit the island in recent days. Mr Lingjerde added that rescuers were moving on to other parts of the island. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – who visited Nias on Thursday – urged quake survivors to be patient, amid reports that aid was coming too slowly. Aid is reported to have become bottle-necked at mainland ports and airports, and broken bridges and roads are making travel away from Gunung Sitoli impossible for anything but motorbikes. High seas have forced two boats loaded with aid back from the neighbouring island of Simeulue. The UN remains hopeful that a landing craft stocked with food and other essentials will arrive in Nias from neighbouring Aceh within a day, our correspondent says. The Australian military also expects a floating hospital to arrive off Nias early tomorrow. A police officer on the island, Colonel Zainuri Lubis, estimated that 1,936 houses were damaged or had collapsed, along with 122 shops, 11 mosques, 83 churches, one Buddhist temple, 30 government buildings and 78 schools. Gunung Sitoli remains without electricity and the water purification system is down. On the neighbouring Banyak islands, the extent of the damage is still not clear. Earlier in the week, an Indonesian disaster official said an estimated 200-300 people had died on the island chain, but today a village chief said the islanders had suffered no casualties, although they were desperate for food and water. And on Simeulue casualties are reported to be low, because the flimsy buildings lacked impact when they collapsed, but devastation is said to be high. “In some villages, there is something like 100 per cent destruction,” said UN spokeswoman Imogen Wall.

2 April 2005. An aftershock measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale jolted the Indonesian island of Nias today as it was still reeling from a massive earthquake six days ago, meteorologists said. The aftershock hit at 03:32, local time, the Indonesian meteorology office said. Its centre was 15 km under the seabed and about 195 km south of the island’s main town of Gunungsitoli. The office did not say whether the aftershock, which was felt in several town and cities in West Sumatra province, caused any fresh damage or casualties.

4 April 2005. Two strong earthquakes hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday, Hong Kong seismologists said, likely aftershocks of the powerful 8.7-magnitude quake that hit the region last week. A magnitude-6.1 quake centred 280 km west-northwest of Padang was recorded at 08:05, local time, the Hong Kong Observatory said. A second quake registering 6.3 hit 190 km south-southwest of Medan at 10:16, local time, it said. It was not immediately clear whether the quakes caused any casualties or damage.

5 April 2005. Indonesian authorities say more than 2,500 people were killed in last week’s earthquake on the Indonesian island of Nias. More than 500 bodies have been recovered, while a further 2,017 people are missing and now presumed dead. The assessment was made after a village-by-village survey by the Indonesian armed forces. Heavy-lifting equipment is still being brought to the island to lift rubble and debris from the scene of collapsed buildings, mainly around the island’s capital, Gunungsitoli. The town’s hospital has partly re-opened and begun treating injured locals. Two medical teams working for AusAid have treated more than 300 people around the island, while other locals are being treated on board the Navy vessel Kanimbla. Most of the patients have fractures and crush injuries.

6 April 2005. The death toll from the 8.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia’s western islands on March 28 has risen by nearly 100 to 653 today, according to a report released by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The majority of the death toll was on Nias island, where 619 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster. The other fatalities were reported from nearby Simeuleu island and six regencies in the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh, it said.

8 April 2005. A strong earthquake shook north-eastern Indonesia early today, Hong Kong seismologists said. The 5.5-magnitude quake’s epicentre was beneath the Maluku Sea, about 230 km north-east of Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

8 April 2005. Indonesian officials have cut their estimate of the number of people missing in Aceh province after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, by 60 per cent, as a result of better data collection. According to the latest numbers, 37,063 are now listed as missing from 93,458 early this week. The change largely reflects identification of people listed as missing as actually among those displaced when the quake and the tsunami it triggered destroyed their homes, a spokesman for the government’s disaster coordinating operation said today. The spokesman from Indo Pacific, which handles media relations for the relief effort, said since March 26 there had been a concerted effort to gather and collate identification details of people displaced by the disaster. Displaced persons “now have to start giving their details and register their contact details … and that’s why the number of missing people has dropped significantly,” said the spokesman, who declined to be named. More than 500,000 people were displaced by the disaster. Though many now live in government or aid organisation constructed and maintained camps, others stay in ramshackle collections of tents and shacks on hillsides or in forests, or are housed with relatives and friends. A government disaster centre statement issued late yesterday gave a count of 126,915 for those killed by the quake and tsunami, less than 200 more than in a statement on Tuesday (April 5), when the count of those missing had still been 93,458. Many bodies were washed out to sea by the giant waves, while others are unlikely ever to be recovered from the tonnes of debris left behind, meaning the precise death toll from the disaster will probably never be known.

10 April 2005. A strong earthquake has struck near the Indonesian island of Sumatra, seismologists said. The epicentre of the quake, which had an estimated magnitude of 6.7, was about 120 km south-west of the city of Padang, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage, but some people fled the coast. No tsunami warning was issued. The latest tremor struck at struck at 17:29, local time, and was felt as far away as Singapore. Many people were reported to have fled their homes in Padang, after a radio broadcast by city mayor Fauzi Bahar.

11 April 2005. Panic swept through the streets as another powerful earthquake shook a Sumatran town today. The quake, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, hit at 01:30, local time, today, with its epicentre estimated off the coast, about 100 km south-west of the Sumatran town of Padang, the Hong Kong observatory said. An earlier quake hit yesterday near Siberut Island, 109 km south-west of Painan, a neighbouring town to Padang, causing panic among residents fearful of another tsunami. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. There were traffic jams in the streets as people tried to flee the city for higher ground. The duty seismologist at Geoscience Australia, Cvetan Sinadinovski, said the Padang area would have felt the quake at an intensity of around five or six on the Richter scale. The region has experienced a further eight tremors since the initial 6.8 quake, the largest being 6.4. So far, there are no reports of casualties or damage from the quake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, which struck at 17:29, local time, approximately 30 km beneath the sea surface south of Siberut Island, about 115 km south west of Padang. Whilst major ports in the area are operating as normal today, there is reported to be a shortage of trucks at Padang as many drivers fled their homes for higher ground when the earthquake struck.

15 April 2005. A moderate intensity quake today shook the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Indian Meteorological Department said. The tremor, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, was felt at 17:00, Indian Standard Time, yesterday. It was epicentred off the West Coast of Sumatra and there were no reports of damage to property or human casualty, the Met Office said.

18 April 2005. Two earthquakes measuring 4.5 and 5.6 on the Richter scale have rattled the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. The Meteorology and Geophysics Office says there have been no reports of damage or casualties. The first temblor hit at 03:28, local time, with a magnitude of 4.5 and an epicentre some 33 km under the floor of the Indonesian Ocean, some 240 km south-west of the West Sumatra town of Pariaman. The second, a magnitude-5.6 earthquake, struck at 04:23, local time, and was centred some 15 km below the ocean floor, around 140 km south-west of the West Sumatra town of Painan.

18 April 2005. A powerful undersea earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Nias late last night causing widespread panic, officials said. The quake measured an estimated 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck about 220 km out to sea south-southwest of the city of Medan at 23:44 hour, the Hong Kong Observatory said in a statement. Wijayanto, a Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official based in the town of Gunung Sitoli, on the eastern side of Nias island, said there was no tsunami threat from the tremor. The quake cut off the town’s electricity supply and caused widespread panic for residents in the town.