Recent events

Most of the affected areas are in mountainous regions and access is impeded by landslides that have blocked the roads. An estimated 3.3 million were left homeless in Pakistan. The UN reported that more than 4 million people are directly affected, as winter snows start. Many of them are at risk of dying from cold and the spread of disease.

The following websites offer useful information:

USGS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2005/usdyae/

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2005/south_asia_quake/default.stm

United Nations Emergency Reponse http://earthquake05.un.org.pk

WHO website with situation reports
http://www.who.int/hac/crises/international/pakistan_earthquake/en/index.html

Federal Response Commission
http://www.earthquakepakistan.com

Sumatra-Andaman Islands Earthquake - 26 December 2004
On 26 December 2004 at 00:58:53 (UTC) , the biggest earthquake for 40 years occured on the interface of the India and Burma plates as the India plate subducted beneath the overriding Burma plate. The magnitude 9.0 event was located off the west coast of Northern Sumatra and generated a giant tsunami that spread thousands of kilometres, causing devastating damage to the coasts of over 12 countries.

To date (5/1/2005) at least 155,000 have been confrimed dead and this number is expected to rise with many more missing. The following figures have been provided by government officials or agencies (unless otherwise indicated) and have been broken down into countries, as follows:

• Indonesia: 94,200 dead, 6,000 missing.
• Sri Lanka: More than 46,000 dead, with more than 14,000 missing.
• India: 9,682 dead, 6,011 missing - 5,914 on Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Thailand: 5,187 dead, 3,810 missing.
• Somalia: 114, according to the United Nations.
• Maldives: 82 dead, 26 missing.
• Malaysia: 66 dead, 6 missing.
• Myanmar: 86 dead, according to the International Federation for the Red Cross, which is coordinating with the Myanmar government and the United Nations.
• Tanzania: 10 dead, according to the U.N.
• Bangladesh: 2 dead, according to the U.N.
• Kenya: 1 dead, according to Kenyan media.
• Seychelles: Unconfirmed reports of deaths.

  Following the devastating earthquakes and subsequent tsunami in Southeast Asia on 26 December 2004, EEFIT sent a mission to Sri Lanka and Thailand. Click here for the preliminary mission report.

  The "Post Tsunami Survey Field Guide" published by UNESCO in 1998 can be downloaded from the UNESCO website following the link below:

  http://ioc.unesco.org/itsu/files/MG037.pdf

The following websites offer useful information:

USGS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav//

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2004/asia_quake_disaster/default.stm

Near the west coast of Honshu, Japan- October 23, 2004
A strong earthquake occurred at 08:56:00 (UTC) on Saturday, October 23, 2004. The magnitude 6.8 event has been located near the west coast of Honshu, Japan. At least 31 people have been killed, 2,000 injured, 151 buildings destroyed and 2,607 damaged in Niigata Prefecture. A high-speed train drailed; several roads, bridges and rail lines have been damaged and at least 90 landslides and 11 fires have occurred. Several gas, water and power lines have also been reported damaged in the Niigata Prefecture. The earthquake was felt in Chiba, Fukushima, Gumma, Kanagawa, Miyagi, Saitama and Tokyo Prefectures. Strong aftershocks continued to hit Japan the country's deadliest earthquake in almost a decade. No fatalities were reported after the latest quake, which measured 5.6 in magnitude and hit on 25/10/04. The main quake was centred in Niigata, 260km (160 miles) north of Tokyo.

The following websites offer useful information:

USGS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/uspyal/

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3946957.stm

Pictures from the event can be found on the following website
http://geot.civil.metro-u.ac.jp/archives/eq/04niigata/index.html

Strait of Gibraltar,Morocco- February 24, 2004
The 6.5-magnitude quake, which struck at about 2:28 a.m. (0628 GMT), shook the Strait of Gibraltar, just off the northern coast of Morocco. The shattering earthquake that struck northern Morocco early Tuesday has claimed 564 lives (reported February 25). Another 300 people were reported injured, 80 of them seriously according to the ministry. Many of the deaths were around the Mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima which has a population of several hundred thousand.

The following websites offer useful information:

USGS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usfgag.htm

REUTERS
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/emergency/MO_EAR.htm

Bam,Iran- December 26, 2003
At 5:26am on 26 December 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake shook a large area of the Kerman province in Iran. The epicenter of the devastating earthquake is located at 29.00°N 58.34°E, 10 km southwest of Bam City.

Initial reports suggest that at least 30,000 people have been killed, 30,000 injured and 85 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed and infrastructure damaged in the Bam area. Maximum intensities of IX was felt at Bam, VIII at Baravat and V at Kerman. Surface faulting had been observed on the Bam Fault between Bam and Baravat and a maximum acceleration of 0.98g was recorded at Bam.

Dr Ali Manafpour of Halcrow and Jubin Motamed of University of Westminster visited Bam following the earthquake. They will be speaking at the EEFIT Technical Meeting on Wednesday, 3rd March 2004 at the Institution of Structural Engineers. Details are included in the link below.

EEFIT Technical Meeting on the Bam earthquake - 3rd March 2004

A detailed report on this earthquake can be obtained from the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), at:

http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/Bam_report_english.html

Hokkaido,Japan- September 26, 2003
A great earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale struck at 04:50 local time on Friday, September 26, 2003. The shallow earthquake occurred about 60 km offshore.

The following websites offer useful information:

http://www.willisre.com/html/reports/catastrophe/Tokachi-oki%20EQ.pdf

USGS
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/poster/2003/20030925.html

COSMOS
http://db.cosmos-eq.org/scripts/event.plx?evt=881

Other useful links are as follows, however most websites are in Japanese:

Report by Asian Disaster Reduction Center
http://www.adrc.or.jp/nationframe.asp?URL=./view_disaster_en.asp&NationC

Acceleration recorded by DPRI http://sms.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kushiro030926.html
Report on source mechanism by Hi-net http://www.hinet.bosai.go.jp/topics/tokachi0309/
Report on Tsunami height http://www.dree.ce.akita-u.ac.jp/mizu/association/kushiro030926/#tsunami
Numerical modeling of Tsunami http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qu9s-ksmr/tokachi/

Photographs by Hokkaido government http://www.pref.hokkaido.jp/soumu/sm-bsbou/bousai/h15zishin/higaiphotoi

Boumerdes,Algeria- May 21, 2003
Dr. Takashi Tazoh and Dr Yozo Goto, the Chairman of Earthquake Engineering Committee, Japanese Society of Civil Engineering, visited Algeria in June 2003 to make a reconnaissance on the earthquake disaster which struck the Boumerdes area of Algeria, an earthquake which killed more than 2,000 people on May 21, 2003. They were the first team of the JAEE, JSCE, JGA and SIJ joint reconnaissance. The second team with ten members was led by Prof. Masanori Hamada of Waseda Univ. and visited Algeria in July. A full report will be published in due course.

A short report was written in English of the reconnaissance and has been uploaded it on the following web page.

http://www.kedm.bosai.go.jp/japanese/topics/Argeria/Argeria_report_index.html

Bingol,Turkey- May 1, 2003
On the 1st of May 2003, at 3.27 a.m. local time (00.27 GMT), an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter magnitude scale (Mw=6.41) occurred at a depth of circa 10 km, in the south Anatolian high-mountainous province of Bingol, in eastern Turkey. The event was centred about 15 km Northwest of the city of Bingol. 177 fatalities were reported and around 519 people were injured.

A recent report based on the field mission has been written by Frederick Ellul and Dina D`Ayala can be found in the link below:

Bingol, 2003 Field Report

Melton Mowbray, Leics. UK- October 28th 2001
An earthquake of 4.1ML was reported by the media, the Police and residents of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire of a felt event at approximately 16:25 UTC. Felt reports described "we ran into the street", "I was frightened", "I thought a bomb had gone off "and "the whole street shook".

For more information, please visit the BGS website on this and other events in the UK:
http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/gsrg.html

Peru- June 23rd 2001
An earthquake struck the southern part of Peru and the northern part of Chile in the afternoon of June 23. CISMID (Peru-Japan Center for Earthquake Engineering Research and Disaster Mitigation) has prepared a preliminary report on the earthquake (see below the link for the report), and also dispatched some reconnaissance missions to the area. On Thursday, they will release information on strong motion records, and will update the general information.

As of June 25, the Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil (INDECI) reported the following information on the quake effects:

1. No. of affected people: 12,400
2. Injured: 963
3. Missing : 36
4. Dead : 52

Distribution of MM seismic intensities, prepared by the Instituto Geofisico del Peru, IGP (Geophysical Institute of Peru):
http://cns.igp.gob.pe/ie_main.htm

The University of Tokyo
http://www.eic.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/topics/200106232033

Peruvian newspapers:
La Republica http://www.larepublica.com.pe
Expreso http://www.expreso.com/hoy01/index.html
El Comercio http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe
RPP http://www.rpp.com.pe

Bhuj, India - January 26th 2001
A major earthquake occurred in Gujarat, India at 8:16 PM MST, Jan 25, 2001 (Jan 26 at 8:46 AM local time in India). Initial readings indicated a magnitude of 7.9, which was later revised to 7.7. The earthquake was felt throughout northwest India and much of Pakistan. Also felt in western Nepal and Bangladesh.

The earthquake occurred along an approximately East-West trending thrust fault at shallow (less than 25 kilometers) depth. Thrust faults occur when one portion of the earth`s crust is pushed up over an adjacent portion. The strain that caused this earthquake is due to the Indian plate pushing northward into the Eurasian plate.

India (as of 15/2/2001):

1. No. of affected people: > 600,000
2. Injured: 166,836
3. Dead : 18,602
4. Damage estimates are $1.3 billion US dollars.
5. Pakistan: 18 people are reported killed, with 100 injured.

EERI special earthquake report: http://www.eeri.org/lfe/india_bhuj.html

The Gujrat Relief Engineering Advice Team (GREAT) has since published a guide on building design which free to download:
The Repair and Strengthening Guide for Earthquake Damaged Low-rise Domestic buildings in Gujarat, India, 2001

Kocaeli, Turkey- August 17th 1999
On August 17, 1999 a magnitude MW 7.4 earthquake struck the province of Kocaeli in western Turkey. The epicenter was southwest of the city of Izmit, in a densely populated area in the industrial heartland of Turkey, and less than 80 km southeast of Istanbul. The earthquake occurred in the middle of the night (3:02 a.m. local time) when most residents were home sleeping.

The following websites offer further information:

Kandilli Observatory: http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/jeofizik/defaulteng.htm
EERI: http://www.eeri.org