On March 17, scientists published a paper in Nature Magazineon the effects of the December 25 earthquake and tsunami inIndonesia. Eleven days later, another earthquake struck,almost exactly where they said it would, which producedanother gigantic tsunami wave. Unknowncountry.com posted anews story that made thesameprediction. The final death toll from December?s quakenumbers over 300,000 people, most of whom were women andchildren. The second tsunami, which was caused by an 8.7quake, killed only around 2,000 people, probably becausethey were warned. Anything with a magnitude above 7.5 isconsidered a giant earthquake. The Christmas quake had amagnitude of 9.3
In News@nature.com, Michael Hopkin writes talks to theexpert who predicted where second earthquake would strike.However, seismologists don’t like to use the word”prediction,” since it implies that they have much morewarning about upcoming quakes than they actually do.
The latest quake hit the Indonesian island of Nias, butthere’s another major undersea fault line that runs nearby.Seismologists think the recent quake may have elongated thestressed section of that fault.
The BBC News reports that four times more women than menwere killed by the original Asian tsunami, because they werewaiting on beaches for their husbands, who were fishermen,to return.
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