Support NeoGAF

[kumanoki]

Great vacation. Thank god we didn't go to Phuket. Man, Thailand and India are screwed.

 

[Ned Flanders]

Some of the footage they are showing on CNN right now is bonkers. One of the greatest catastrophe's of our time IMO..

 

[kumanoki]

The really strange thing is that the earthquake hit while we were in Koh Samui and we didn't feel anything. Not a shake, nothing. Geographically, we should've felt something, considering how close we were.

 

[Ned Flanders]

I've seen videos on the Kobe '95 quake before, and they talked a lot about how the topography of the land and the type of earth underlying the surface dictated how the vibrations were disseminated. Areas on more stable bedrock stifled the S waves while areas on more viscous soils magnified the vibrations exponentially. You must have been in a kind of vibration "dead zone" (no pun intended).

 

[Ninja Scooter]

wait, there's a place in Thailand called "Phuket"?

 

[Fresh Prince]

wait, there's a place in Thailand called "Phuket"?

And it's capital is called Bangkok? OMG this cannot be true.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

And it's capital is called Bangkok? OMG this cannot be true.

you just blew my mind dude.

 

[Outlaw Pro Mod]

23,000+ dead. There's one area that has a population of over 1 million that no one has even heard from.......

 

[Fresh Prince]

Has the US actually stepped up to put a monetary value on the aid they are giving instead of this 'What is deemed neccessary' or whatever I was hearing yesterday.

Even Australia was giving AU$10 million in aid and direct support- which is definately a step in the right direction (though cynics will say it is to impart further influence in Asia and be a partner in ASEAN)

 

[Nerevar]

wait, there's a place in Thailand called "Phuket"?

it's pronounced "poo-ket" (or so I've heard it said).

 

[fart]

Has the US actually stepped up to put a monetary value on the aid they are giving instead of this 'What is deemed neccessary' or whatever I was hearing yesterday.

Even Australia was giving AU$10 million in aid and direct support- which is definately a step in the right direction (though cynics will say it is to impart further influence in Asia and be a partner in ASEAN)

i overheard 20 mil USD on cnn to start with

 

[Fresh Prince]

Cool.
Yesterday it seemed weird that according to CNN(local station had a stream) the EU and Australia already made a contribution but the US (world police) seemed non-commital.

 

[Error Macro]

When man go through airport terminal sideways, he is going to Bangkok.

 

[fart]

well i wouldn't be surprised if that 20 mil goes into no-bid contracts for halliburton, but eh.

 

[Outlaw Pro Mod]

I guess next you'll say that the Bush administration is behind the earthquake. Hell, Anderson Cooper is already asking the question "Who dropped the ball?"..

 

[kumanoki]

I was just as surprised as anyone else. Here we were, less than 300 miles away from total destuction, and we didn't hear a thing about it until we got into the island airport departure area. It was weird. We also arrived at the airport in Bangkok before anyone was airlifted out of the affected areas. We were also there yesterday morning and everything was casual there.

We were lucky to get out before the droves of Phuket tourists got out of there.

One of my friends told me that the earthquake was caused by contenental plates shifting over 1000km, and that the force of the shift disrupted the planet's orbit. Any verification on these claims?

 

[Fresh Prince]

I guess next you'll say that the Bush administration is behind the earthquake. Hell, Anderson Cooper is already asking the question "Who dropped the ball?"..

Nay. We'll just be wondering if in 20 years times the same earthquake will happen and even further deaths will occur due to rising ocean waters.

 

[cvxfreak]

23,000?!?!?

Damn

 

[radios shipping overview]

One of my friends told me that the earthquake was caused by contenental plates shifting over 1000km, and that the force of the shift disrupted the planet's orbit. Any verification on these claims?

The wobble in the earth's rotation may have been disrupted - not the orbit:

In this case, the 9.0-magnitude shock was a "megathrust" quake, which occurs when one tectonic plate is forced beneath another. Initial U.S. Geological Survey data from the quake and its dozens of powerful aftershocks indicate that some 740 miles of the boundary between the India plate and the Burma plate slipped an average of 15 meters and that the sea floor thrust up several meters. It is difficult to determine the total mass of the crust that shifted because the movement was irregular, but when so much of the Earth moves so far, the wobble of its axis will jog slightly, too.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2111443/

 

[kumanoki]

23,000?!?!?

Damn

Mostly children. An entire generation of children along the coasts of Indonesia, India, and Thailand have been killed.

 

[Gantz]

I guess next you'll say that the Bush administration is behind the earthquake. Hell, Anderson Cooper is already asking the question "Who dropped the ball?"..

Yeah Bush and his cronies were testing WMDs underwater which happened to trigger movement in the earth's crust causing the tsunamies.

 

[SlickWilly223]

Man this is one great example of mother nature's awesome powers, I feel horrible for those who were in her way.

I wonder if they have any footage of the actually wave crashing onto the land or not. The chaos must have been insane...

 

[Gantz]

I saw some footage on the news. They showed people getting washed away while the camera was filming.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Yeah, I saw that, too...it wasn't easy to watch. It reminded me of this photo this guy took of a tsunami hitting Hawaii, and this guy on a seawall under the 15 foot wave. He was never seen again.

 

[talking head]

it is already the most expensive disaster in human history.