This article caught my eye as my brother (working Saudi) is this very moment in mid-air heading to Jakarta to spend Christmas with his family.
(sorry, I don't know how to apply as a link) just c&p :
Nov 19, 2007
JAKARTA (AFP) — Local officials in a quake-prone Indonesian province said Monday they were taking precautionary measures after a Brazilian psychic warned a powerful earthquake would strike next month.
Husni Hassanuddin, a spokesman for Bengkulu province on Sumatra island, said the Indonesian embassy in Brasilia had passed on a letter from a "professor" and psychic predicting a quake would rock the island on December 23.
"During a recent meeting with all senior officials in Bengkulu, we determined a number of evacuation shelters for residents, especially those who live in the coastal areas," he told ElShinta radio.
He said there would be several evacuation drills around the province prior to December 23.
"Though we call it a rumour, we take this information seriously. We don't want people to blame us if it really happens," he said.
Another Bengkulu official, Fauzan Rahim, told state-run Antara news agency that he had seen a copy of the letter from Jucelino Nobrega da Luz, which predicted an 8.5-magnitude quake on Sumatra, but did not give an exact location. Sumatra is home to nine other provinces.
Antara said da Luz had sent a letter in 1998 predicting the tsunami that devastated Indonesia in 2004. He also issued a warning in 2006 forecasting September's 8.4-magnitude quake in Bengkulu, which left 23 people dead, it said.
A seismologist from the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told ElShinta that no technology in the world could predict an earthquake.
"We have told people repeatedly that we cannot predict a quake. If there's information about the date on which a quake will occur, it is surely untrue," he said.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Well, an earthquake in the pacific ring of fire would not be unusual but at least a date and a (sort of) target has been predicted.
.
Found the story in Google
http://tinyurl.com/2nhthl
I hope the psychic professor is surcharged for the cost of the precautions when his prediction misses.
Seeing the details of those previous predictions would be nice.
Well nothing so far according to BBC news
Source: this absolutely fascinating website I was shown a couple of weeks ago: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event...indonesia.htmlMagnitude 4.9 KEPULAUAN SANGIHE, INDONESIA
Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 15:47:22 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude 4.9 [ie not powerful at all]
# Date-Time Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 15:47:22 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
# Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 11:47:22 PM local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 4.05N 125.29E
Depth 178.8 kilometers
Region KEPULAUAN SANGIHE, INDONESIA
Distances 230 km (140 miles) S of General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines
285 km (180 miles) N of Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia
1260 km (780 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines
2340 km (1460 miles) ENE of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty Error estimate: horizontal +/- 11.4 km; depth +/- 12.6 km
Parameters Nst=39, Nph=39, Dmin=335.6 km, Rmss=0.95 sec, Erho=11.4 km, Erzz=12.6 km, Gp=78.3 degrees
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID uslgaq
Please also note this page which shows just how common earthquakes are in Indonesia (one every day).
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/
And this site which lists earthquakes of notable magnitude in Indonesia. The last one of any size was in March:
http://www.eeri.org/lfe/indonesia.html
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