About an Earthquake-Tsunami on 22 July 2009

Rumour about an Earthquake-Tsunami on 22 July 2009 Unfounded

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15-Apr-2009

July 22 Tsunami Hoax Debunked
The Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) has received several inquiries from the media and the general public about a rumour circulating in emails and blogs recently that a major tsunami triggered by a solar eclipse on July 22nd 2009 will devastate the southeast Asian region.

EOS affirms that, to date, scientists have not found any significant correlation between solar eclipses and earthquakes. Since 1900, for example, of 82 earthquakes greater than magnitude 8 worldwide, only two occurred close to the time of a solar eclipse. However, these were not only partial eclipses but also far from the locations of the earthquakes.

At present, no scientific methods or technologies exist that can pinpoint precisely the timing, location or magnitude of earthquakes. Longer-term forecasts, however, have been made on the basis of scientific information. For example, scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore and their Indonesian colleagues have forecast that another large earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra is likely within the next few decades. More details on this study can be found here:
http://www.earthobservatory.sg/media/2008/20081212_PrehistoricRecordImprovesForecastOfLarge
WestSumatranEarthquakeAndTsunami/index.php

Singapore is well protected from the threat of an earthquake-generated tsunami because it is not directly exposed to open ocean but surrounded by a number of land masses. A study completed in December 2008, by the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore, showed that a tsunami generated by rupture of a very large earthquake fault beneath the South China Sea would take about 10 hours to reach Singapore by which time most of the wave energy would have dissipated, resulting in only a moderate rise in sea level (less than a metre).

The EOS reiterates that there is no scientific evidence to support the rumour that an earthquake-tsunami in the southeast Asian region linked to the solar eclipse on 22 July 2009 will occur.