Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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An Island Lifted 10 Feet Out Of the Sea?
April 09, 2007 1:52 PM
Amid the devastation from the tsunami in the Solomon Islands last week, there is this item from Agence France-Presse: the remote island of Ranongga was reportedly forced upward by about three meters, or ten feet.
Some of the AFP story:
"The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs.
"In an instant, the grinding of the Earth's tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres."
AFP says "Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island." And, it says, "Dazed villagers stand on the shoreline, still coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever, pushing the shoreline out to sea by up to 70 metres." (70 meters would be more than 200 feet.)
There's more from various newspaper web sites in Australia and southern Asia; take a look HERE. The Australian says there were believed to have been two deaths on the island--one of whose residents is credited with rescuing John F. Kennedy in World War II when his boat, PT-109, was destroyed by a Japanese warship.
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Center says it's certainly not impossible for the island to have been thrust upward by ten feet, though they don't have information on their own to verify it. "You can have uplift from an earthquake that large," said geologist Paul Earle. "But three meters surprises me a little bit. You have to be pretty close to the fault line to have that much effect." The USGS has more on the quake HERE.
The AP's Meraiah Foley, meanwhile, reports that aid is finally reaching the area, shops are reopening--and that exposed coral on Ranongga is making it hard for boats to land, though she does not say the entire island was raised. (Her story is HERE.) The USGS says before-and-after satellite pictures of the island might tell us something about how much the landscape was shifted, though it might take a little time for a useful satellite image to come out.
The Solomons are remote. Their location on a major fault line makes them more so.
April 9, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)
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Well... Could be a very good thing for them in the ling run, if the sea keeps rising as many scientists predict that it will.
Posted by: Tim | Apr 9, 2007 3:01:35 PM
This serves as another reminder, I think, of the awesome power of nature, which we too often forget. Is there any way to measure the loss of coral and its effects on the area?
Posted by: chuck | Apr 10, 2007 9:10:23 AM
i think im gonna hurl
Posted by: mando | Apr 10, 2007 2:42:03 PM
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