A 2005 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia pushed an island 1.2m out of the water, causing one of the biggest cases of coral deaths recorded, scientists said yesterday.
Researchers surveying the island of Simeulue in March found that most corals along its 300km perimeter had been partly raised out of the water by the 2005 earthquake, with the exposed parts dying off. It is believed to be the first time that scientist have documented the impacts on corals from a quake.
"The scale of it [the impact] was quite extraordinary," said Andrew Baird, of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef, who took part in the survey with scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
"Exposed corals were everywhere," he said.
Baird, who said their findings would be published later this year, said exposed corals stretched from a few meters from shore to as far as 500m.
"Some species suffered up to 100 percent loss at some sites, and different species now dominate the shallow reef," he said.
More than 900 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless in the 8.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Nias, Banyak and Simeulue islands off the coast of Sumatra.
Australian reef expert Clive Wilkinson, who did not take part in the survey, said the damage to the reefs on Simeuleu was to be expected.
"I don't think it's anything new. This has been going on for millions of years," Wilkinson said. "It's part of natural reef evolution. There are many islands in the Pacific that are actually uplifted coral reefs. It's just what happens to reefs."
"The news from Simeulue is not all bad," Stuart Campbell, coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Marine Program, said in a statement.
"At many sites, the worst affected species are beginning to re-colonize the shallow reef areas," he said. "The reefs appear to be returning to what they looked like before the earthquake, although the process may take many years."
Baird said their findings should give hope to communities in the Solomon Islands, where concerns have been raised that an April 2 earthquake and tsunami might have damaged its reef ecosystem and in turn its diving industry.
"They shouldn't be worried about losing their dive industry," Baird said of the Solomon Islands.
"Everything still in the water will still be fine," he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of