Reply #13: AP: "the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation." [View All]

[Minstrel Boy]

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

Initial damage centered in the Indonesian province of Aceh on northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but as elsewhere, much of the death toll appeared to come from onrushing floodwaters.

Towns nearest the epicenter were leveled by tidal waves. An Associated Press reporter saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&u=/ap/20041226/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake_23&printer=1