Breaking: A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck in Pakistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey

[Roland99]

Source: CNN

USGS link
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2011ggbx.php



Read more: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/18/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-hits-southwestern-pakistan/

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[MineralMan]

2. A big one, and land-based. There will be plenty of damage, I'm sure.

A very sad day for the people living there.

[dipsydoodle]

8. very sad day for the people living there

was for Haiti too and a year later they're still waiting for the aid which was promised - still apparently still tied up in congressional meetings.

see here :
For Haiti, U.S. aid remains just a promise
More than $1 billion pledged for reconstruction projects is tied up in Washington, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are still living in camps for the homeless.
http://www.startribune.com/world/103975008.html

A huge amount of aid was promised for Bam , Iran , too in 2003. None of that ever materialised.

Watch this space to how much more aid , which will also probably never materialise, gets promised on this occasion.

[XemaSab]

10. Pakistan's already dealt with horrible flooding in the last year

They have NO resources for this. :(

[dipsydoodle]

11. Haiti didn't either

.

[XemaSab]

14. It's true

:(

[dipsydoodle]

15. Xemasab

I appreciate this isn't a competition between the needs of different countries : people are people.

Its just that whenever a disaster occurs big time the US has the habit of publishing a simply vast promised aid figure , almost as a publicity event , which then never really come to fruition : they are not alone in that. Exactly the same happened with the 2003 earthquake in Bam ,Iran.

Fortunately on this occasion there appears to have been a lesser effect : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12222081

I do recall from the issue of last years flooding in Pakistan that at least some those affected appear to have had more help from "terrorists" than from their own government.

For the general situation re. Haiti see here : http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254586&Itemid=1

:hi:

[EFerrari]

16. If a charity collected money from half of all the homes in America

for a disaster and then sat on the money for a year, they could be sued for fraud.

[dipsydoodle]

17. The way it works in the UK

is that the Disaster Emergency Committee acts as an umbrella organisation for a dozen or so charities.

For Haiti they collected £106,000,000 from the UK public of which I believe 52% has been spent.
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Year-of-living-dangerously-for.6672871.jp
Progress on providing better shelters has been frustratingly slow. Very little land is available. Ownership of land is often unclear
http://www.dec.org.uk/item/483

I recall reading that the amount embarrassed the UK government into upping what they were paying.

:hi:

[2QT2BSTR8]

3. Magnitude 7.4 - Southwestern Pakistan

Source: USGS

Breaking story on CNN/MSNBC - no articles posted yet.

Magnitude 7.4 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes)
Date-Time
* Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 20:23:18 UTC
* Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 01:23:18 AM at epicenter

Location 28.940°N, 63.930°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region SOUTHWESTERN PAKISTAN
Distances

* 55 km (34 miles) W (271°) from Dalbandin, Pakistan
* 263 km (164 miles) W (269°) from Kalat, Pakistan
* 301 km (187 miles) ESE (102°) from Zahedan, Iran
* 793 km (493 miles) NE (41°) from MUSCAT, Oman

Event ID pt11018001

Read more: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/pt11018001.php#details

[bigworld]

4. Luckily, that immediate area isn't too heavily populated

But that's big.

[dipsydoodle]

5. desert area bordering Iran and Afghanistan

An shallow 7.4-magnitude earthquake has hit south-western Pakistan, in a desert area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake struck at a depth of just 10km (6.2 miles) at 0123 on Wednesday (2023 GMT on Tuesday), some 55 km (34 miles) west of Dalbandin in Pakistan.

It was located several hundred kilometres from the Pakistani city of Quetta and the city of Zahedan, Iran.

The 7.6-magnitude Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 killed 73,000 people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12222081

[2QT2BSTR8]

6. Fourth 7+ quake this year around the planet

Magnitude 7.0 SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA January 01, 2011
Magnitude 7.1 ARAUCANIA, CHILE January 02, 2011
Magnitude 7.0 LOYALTY ISLANDS January 13, 2011
Magnitude 7.4 SOUTHWESTERN PAKISTAN January 18, 2011

http://www.niceone.org/lab/quakes/

*edit - changed subject line to reflect global quakes, and not regional.

[Joanne98]

7. Here's an estimate of what the damage will be.........

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/events/us/2011ggbx/index.html

[mia]

9. A magnitude 7.6 quake on October 8, 2005, killed about 80,000

people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir and left more than 3 million homeless

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/delhi-shaken-as-earthquake-strikes-pakistan-80184?cp

[fleabert]

12. friends in dubai felt it- in apt skyscraper

all is ok there though

[pscot]

13. 7.4 quake rocks Pakistan

Source: The Nation

Strong earthquake jolted Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab late Tuesday night. The US Geological Survey recorded the quake magnitude at 7.4, which was very shallow at a depth of 6.3 miles (10 km). It struck 34 miles (55 km) west of Dalbandin, a town in located in western Balochistan. The earthquake shook Karachi, Quetta, Jaffarabad, Sibbi, Lahore, DG Khan, Sargodha and many other towns and cities. The intensity can be gauged by the fact that it was also felt in Dubai and western areas of India. No loss of life has been reported so far. It is said that the quake did not caused destruction because of short duration.


Read more: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/19-Jan-2011/74quake-jolts-Pakistan