Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests 9.0 earthquake near sumatra......

Originally posted by sigma:

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We've witnessed something that hopefully will never happen again in a very long time.

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Oh it, and others like it, certainly will.

This really was a very tragic event, but I really don't see why this event in particular is made such a big deal out of. And that's not a complain about this event, but the lack of coverage (and often caring) about many others that go virtually un-noticed.

Bangladesh is hit by cyclones all the time that kill tens of thousands in one fell swoop. About every 20 years a storm will come through that kills hundreds of thousands.

Just last year in Iran 35,000 people were killed and over 200,000 left homeless in an earthquake. It was on the news, but not even close to like this. I would imagine largely just because it happened in Iran.

Flooding kills thousands and leaves millions homeless in China every year.

In the grand scheme of just the last century, this would be a "moderate" event, probably not even in the top 50 singular disaster events. In the span of the last millenia this wouldn't even register on the scale. We can't even begin fathom the earthquakes that killed millions of people 1000 years ago -- and this before people lived as densely as they do today.

I'm not at all trying to diminish this tragedy, just pointing out that this is not an uncommon or rare event. Not in the span of modern history and certainly not in the span of human history.

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I think you got it backwards. As the worlds population increases the deaths due to natural disasters increase. Thousands of years ago I highly doubt millions of people died from Earthquakes.

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In MODERN history this will go down as one of the worst natural disasters due to the world wide coverage.

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Originally posted by sigma:

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I think you got it backwards. As the worlds population increases the deaths due to natural disasters increase. Thousands of years ago I highly doubt millions of people died from Earthquakes.

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For the record, I said 1000 (as in the year 1000), not "thousands of years ago".

But thank you for proving my point -- that just because you never heard about it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

We have nothing in the last 200 years to compare to the disasters 500-1000 years ago. An Earthquake in China killed over 800,000 people in 1553. In Italy almost a million died after an earthquake around 1300. In 1201, over one million people died in Egypt and Syria after an earthquake.

If you simply look at a listing of natural disasters throughout recorded history, it is very clear that the disasters of the ancient world were far beyond our comprehension today. Entire civilizations would dissapear. I'm sorry that apparently were not taught many of the historic events of the ancient world.


Here's a listing of the 100 'worst' natural disasters of just the last 100 years HERE-- this tsunami would fall in the bottom half of the list. Remove famine and drought, and it still would be below the tenth position. And that's just the last century.

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In MODERN history this will go down as one of the worst natural disasters due to the world wide coverage.

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We had worldwide coverage 30 years ago -- I can't recall people making a huge deal about the quarter-million Chinese who died in an earthquake. Certainly doubt many remember it.

We certainly had worldwide coverage in 1988 when earthquakes in Armenia killed some 50,000 and left half a million homeless, or in 1991 when cyclones killed 500,000 people throughout SE Asia. Remember that at all?

Simple fact -- we're getting coverage of this because there's nothing else to cover right now. It's a slow news time. And that's sad. This sort of event should get this kind of coverage simply for what it is, but it's only getting it because there's nothing else worth talking about.

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Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

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just outa curiosity, is the US helping in this?? Have we sent relief teams and such?

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Originally posted by SVZETEC:

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Death toll now over 114,000...

[President Bush on Wednesday announced the United States, India, Australia and Japan have formed an international coalition to coordinate relief and reconstruction of the 3,000 miles of Indian Ocean rim walloped by Sunday's earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed.]

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Took long enough. Not trying to turn this into a political thing, whether you like Bush or not is irrelevant. The US and the rest of the world took too long to finally get a semblance of aid to the affected people. I realize what has happened is not as uncommon as the media is making it out to be but with all this coverage you would think this would be the time the various organizations would want to shine. Also people are saying this is not that uncommon, what with what happened in China and various other places but this is the first 9.0 in 40 years. That is perhaps why it is getting all this attention. Or maybe because Americans really don't care about the PRC????

Originally posted by Red92784:

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Originally posted by Pre98:

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Originally posted by Pre98:

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Wouldn't submarines be caught up in a rather huge undertoe so to speak (massive current)?

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I'm still curious

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I would imagine so, since tsunami's travel under water untill they reach the coast. I would think that it would easily carry a submarine muck like the way that a wave carries a surfer (just underwater, and killing everyone onboard).

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