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Pakistan Earthquake Raises New Island

schwit1 writes with news that a recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan killed 45 people and caused a new island to form a few hundred meters off the country's coast. The island is roughly 35 meters long, and 7-14 meters high. "Seismologists suspect the island is a temporary formation resulting from a "mud volcano," a jet of mud, sand and water that gushed to the surface as the temblor churned and pressurized that slurry under the ocean floor." Long-time residents of the area say a similar island formed in 1968 after another earthquake, but disappeared a year later. "It is clear that 'the islands are not created because the ground was ... pushed up by the earthquake,' [said geophysicist Paul Earle], but more likely it was a secondary effect of shifting sediments. He also agrees the formation appears to have been caused by a mud volcano, but added that they don't need an earthquake to set them off. There are 'mud volcanoes in Yellowstone that have not been triggered by earthquakes,' he said."

45 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. wow, by etash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Benjamin Linus moved the island again.

  2. PRC Will Claim the New Territory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because Pakistan has given in to the People's Republic of China (PRC) territory claims in the past, I am sure the PRC will claim this island as theirs!

    1. Re:PRC Will Claim the New Territory by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Nope if you watch this video, you can see it being claimed by about a hundred Pakistani fishermen simultaneously, which killed my excitement for a new country instantly :-(

      Presumably the last one with his hand on the island gets to keep it.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  3. Priorities by Redmancometh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    45 people died, but the news story is about a new not-island less than the size of a football field. Nice.

    1. Re:Priorities by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Much more than 45 people died somewhere during the time it took you to write that post and you failed to even mention them. Nice.

    2. Re:Priorities by Trogre · · Score: 2

      Absolutely correct.

      Are we also not supposed to talk about the economic outfall as a result of the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami that killed many more?

      If not for this new island, that recent earthquake would not have made it to the Slashdot: News for Nerds blog at all.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    3. Re:Priorities by jmhobrien · · Score: 2

      You are right, but that is not news for nerds and stuff that matters.

      --
      Where is moderation: -1 False?
    4. Re:Priorities by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      And while you were writing this, another 45 people died for various reasons. You forgot to mention this...

      Yeah but I didn't just post a news story about the thing that killed them, and focus on something that is non-unique, trivial sience instead.

      The guy above this post though is 100% right..it would never have made it to slashdot, and it would have been better that way. It does say "news for nerds" not "nerd news for nerds" though. It's not like nerds (at least most of them) literally only care about tech and science news.

      inc flame.

    5. Re:Priorities by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      I spelled science wrong since it's 3:20a. Not trying to margianalize scientific discovery...the significance of that island just seems considerably outweighed (as far as news is concerned) by nearly any criterion you would care to use.

    6. Re:Priorities by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      If only there was some other site on the internet, where one could read about the non-scientific issues surrounding the earthquake. We could link to such a site in the summary even as we respectfully highlighted the important humanitarian issues. What a brave new world that would be.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    7. Re:Priorities by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Actually it won't, since the article says the last similar island lasted a year.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    8. Re:Priorities by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Did it occur to you that a post to a science and technology news site might be directed towards the scientific issues for reasons other than the profound inhumanity you have ascribed to the author?

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    9. Re:Priorities by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      45 people died, but the news story is about a new not-island less than the size of a football field. Nice.

      Big pile of mud -> Elbonia -> Dilbert -> Tech -> Stuff that matters. ;-)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Priorities by jamesh · · Score: 1

      I for one found the story of the new island quite interesting. I found about the people dying from BBC well before it came to Slashdot. Why should Slashdot repeat what the mainstream media has already told me?

      What's interesting in this case is not that Slashdot is repeating what the mainstream media already told me (first I heard about the earthquake was a story about the island in the national news), but that Slashdot is repeating what the mainstream media already told me without a 24-168 hour lag, and is only reporting it once.

      Slashdot used to be great because it would have stories in it that the mainstream media might decide weren't interesting to their audience. The problem now is that the mainstream media thinks _everything_ is interesting. I still go to Slashdot because I don't have to filter out stories about how the forehead of the next top model is too big, another celebrity going off the rails, and a list of things I should never say to my boss.

    11. Re:Priorities by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      I just thought it was a hilarious case of weird priorities. I honestly am desensetized at this point since you know, the news.

      It would be kind of like reading an article that says "bomb goes off in boston during marathon, yields new insights into ballistics physics"

    12. Re:Priorities by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      "News for nerds" and "stuff that matters" are completely subjective. Sit the fuck down.

    13. Re:Priorities by Sockatume · · Score: 2

      You say that as though they haven't emphasised the humanitarian impact in literally the first sentence of the summary. The author's priorities are in the right place. You don't have to ignore everything but the humanitarian consequences to be showing compassion for them.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    14. Re:Priorities by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      *A four-alarm fire in Downtown Moscow clears way for a glorious new tractor factory*

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    15. Re:Priorities by onyxruby · · Score: 2

      People die every single day, 107 people die every single minute of every single day. Earthquakes also happen fairly routinely in certain parts of the world. When they are large they are covered by the news, in particular their death tolls are well covered to the point many are saturated.

      I understand you may not care for what I say, but just try to get the TV or major newspaper to cover an average person who died in an average way after they have died. The bottom line is that people simply don't care about people they don't know - it's not newsworthy. Death only becomes newsworthy when the person is (in)famous or dies in a notable way.

      However the creation of a new island from an earthquake if far from an everyday occurrence. It is also notably something that strikes a scientific bell with a community that generally has at least a token interest in science.

    16. Re:Priorities by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

      Death only becomes newsworthy when the person is (in)famous or dies in a notable way.

      However the creation of a new island from an earthquake if far from an everyday occurrence.

      s/(in)famous/known to them/

    17. Re:Priorities by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      People die every single day, 107 people die every single minute of every single day. Earthquakes also happen fairly routinely in certain parts of the world. When they are large they are covered by the news, in particular their death tolls are well covered to the point many are saturated.

      I understand you may not care for what I say, but just try to get the TV or major newspaper to cover an average person who died in an average way after they have died. The bottom line is that people simply don't care about people they don't know - it's not newsworthy. Death only becomes newsworthy when the person is (in)famous or dies in a notable way.

      Excellent! You're only about 3 steps of logic away from solving the Fermi Paradox.

    18. Re:Priorities by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Yes, becasue geological events are interesting.

      Death of people that far removed from ones personal experience, while tragic, doesn't exactly make people pause with their day.

      If it did, we would all go crazy.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    19. Re:Priorities by geekoid · · Score: 1

      The Fermi Paradox isn't.

      It's based on the tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of a fraction of the universe we have explored,
      It assume interstellar travel is possible
      It assume other civilization didn't expand and then die.
      It assumes it takes less resources to get to the next star is less then available resources
      It assume other species would want to expand.

      Until we ahve :
      A) Sent people to another planet around a different star
      B) those people are able to be self sustains and thrive
      C) Invent materials that will last millions of years and still be recognizable as created by an intelligent species

      You can't even have the paradox.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    20. Re:Priorities by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Yes, but wouldn't it be nice to have a site where we can talk about the interesting events and science.

      There are media outlets galore that have in depth look at the dead people.
      Far less with any decent discussion about the geological events in detail.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    21. Re:Priorities by petertrapasso · · Score: 1

      Viola! - Pakistan new island: 7.7 earthquake kills 300, island rises from Arabian sea (Video) http://www.examiner.com/article/pakistan-new-island-7-7-earthquake-kills-300-island-rises-from-arabian-sea

    22. Re:Priorities by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Big pile of mud ->

      Stuff that splatters -> an insensitive clod.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  4. Sandy Island by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    Finally Sandy Island actually exists - just a wee little bit offset to the north...

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  5. Re:Meanwhile by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

    I'm not big on bashing religion (or religion bashing non-believers which is far more common), but that is a funny damn joke why are people downvoting it?

  6. Uh oh. by RivenAleem · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tensions are rising between Ankh-Morpork and Al Khali

    1. Re:Uh oh. by ryzvonusef · · Score: 1

      +1 for Leshp reference :D

      --
      I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
  7. Re:Dregs of journalism by Sockatume · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I feel sorry for your inability to get excited about geology. You know that it's a fool that plays it cool by making his world a little colder.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  8. Re:Meanwhile by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No they're really not. No more than the US is a place you can get shot for just walking down the street -- you can make the case that it's true, but there's a lot of hyperbole in it that other people won't pick up on. If you haven't been there, or don't know people from there, stop trolling. It perpetuates myths about the world that just aren't true.

    Complete rubbish. Things like politicians being shot for opposing blashpemy laws,Kidnapping of Christian and Hindu girls for forced marriage and conversion don't happen in the West. I suggest that unless you have never lived in an Islamic majority country you shut up about "it being just the same in the US".

  9. American Units by rossdee · · Score: 1

    " a new not-island less than the size of a football field."

    Whats the size in cricket pitches? After all we are talking about Pakistan, cricket is their national sport.

  10. Re:Meanwhile by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    You're the guy who made the dubious rhetorical move of dubbing two entire nations "hell-holes".

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  11. Re:Meanwhile by Chrisq · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    You're the guy who made the dubious rhetorical move of dubbing two entire nations "hell-holes".

    believe me they are

  12. Re:Meanwhile by Sique · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And in both places you can be murdered for being a Muslim. So what?

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  13. SHHHH!!!! by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    Nobody mention Atlantis!

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  14. Re:Meanwhile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yep, that doesn't happen. Politicians aren't shot for opposing blasphemy laws. By the way, as your link so elegantly mentions, Shahbaz Bhatti was not killed by the government, but a terrorist organization -- and government declared three days of mourning in response. It's not like there haven't been assassinations of politicians in other countries.

    In the US, instead, tourists get shot for walking down the street, because some people were bored. Let us now condemn all bored people in response!

    It's not the same as the US. But there are wonderful things throughout the Islamic world.

  15. Maybe this will put it in perspective for you by DigitalReverend · · Score: 1
    --
    I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
  16. Re:Meanwhile by Chrisq · · Score: 2

    Where exactly is this nation of Palestine you speak of?

    I apologise for repeating the original poster's inaccurate terminology of the original poster, I should have corrected it to "Palestinian territories"

  17. Re:American Exceptionalism and Moral Superiority by nucrash · · Score: 1

    We can rule over our self and wipe out anyone who stands in our way. Just ask the Native Americans. If we get bored or feel our superiority is in question, we just go bomb another country into submission. Just ask the Philippines, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, Guam, Japan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. But if our moral imperative is in question, look at all the quality nation building we have done over the years. Just ask Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Cuba, and Columbia. We even have an outstanding relationship with the local populations where we place our military bases. Just ask Okinawa. Who cares how we treat our own people, they should be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps so that they can get all of those government kickbacks and pay zero in taxes just like the top one percent. But we have had more new millionaires in the past 30 years, even though that was almost two generations ago and we figured out how to lie through statistics to make income mobility look possible when the reality is less than ever. But hey, we do just fine ruling ourselves. As long as we can exploit cheap labor and blow up a few countries from time to time, exceptional is just what we are.

    --
    Place something witty here
  18. Re:Meanwhile by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Kidnapping of Christian and Hindu girls for forced marriage and conversion don't happen in the West

    Girls most certainly are kidnapped to be forced into marriages in the West. But then they pack them off to the East for the actual marriage. But lots of other girls go missing too. Where do you think they're going? Some of them are being killed, some are going into slavery...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. Any day now ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... an Italian cruise ship will run into it.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  20. Re:Dregs of journalism by Cyfun · · Score: 1

    Nahhhh nahh nahh nah nah nah nah!

    --
    In Soviet Russia, dot slashes YOU!
  21. Re:Really? You have to drag Global Warming into th by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    Don't make it bad. Take a sad song, and make it better.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?