Just a dumb question

with all the news of the tsunami one island is not talked about. The big military base at Diego Garcia



Interesting

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Elevation extremes:
Definition Field Listing
lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
highest point: unnamed location on Diego Garcia 15 m

45 Feet is the island's highest point.

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Yes the CIA Fact Book would tell the truth about that.

Well, almost nobody, the French did."

What makes you say that?

MacDill AFB - Central Command - comes to mind - not exactly in a risk-free location for hurricanes.

As for Diego Garcia-

Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) formed in 1965 from territory belonging formerly to Mauritius and the Seychelles. The island is one of 52 in the Chagos Archipelago, which extends over an area of 10,000 square miles. The archipelago is located in the heart of the Indian Ocean, south of India and between Africa and Indonesia. The tropical island is a narrow coral atoll with a land area of about eleven square miles, nearly enclosing a lagoon. Its configuration is that of a "V" drawn by a shaky hand. The island stretches 37 miles from tip to tip, with an opening to the north-northwest. Three small islands dot the mouth of the lagoon which is approximately 13 miles long and up to 6 miles wide. The lagoon is from sixty to one hundred feet deep with numerous coral heads in most areas. Shallow reefs surround the island on the ocean side, as well as in the lagoon. The island's mean height above sea level is 4 feet.

Diego Garcia is the largest of many atolls that form the Chagos Archipelago. The horseshoe- shaped atoll is located seven degrees south of the equator in the North Central Region of the Indian Ocean. It is heavily vegetated, has a land area of 6,720 acres and is 37 miles long, tip- to-tip. The maximum elevation is 22 feet, with an average elevation of four feet above sea level. The enclosed lagoon is approximately seven miles wide and thirteen miles long. The three small islands at the mouth of the lagoon and the shape of the atoll give the impression of a footprint, hence the term ¡°Footprint of Freedom¡±.

>snip<

Diego Garcia is not a typhoon haven. The surrounding topography is low and does not provide an extensive wind break. Expected winds of 60 kt or greater justify a sortie to the north of all ships in the lagoon. With expected winds around 35-40 kt, sortie is not recommended. Small harbor craft can be moored at existing pier structures and larger ships can be anchored in the lee anchorage. In the past 30 years, the island has not been seriously affected by a severe tropical cyclone even though it is threatened about once a year. The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone in the past 30 years at Diego Garcia has been approximately 40 kt.
note: maps and charts of island are also available at this site
http://www.n-wisdom.com/map_volume/diego%20garcia/diego_garcia.htm

Diego Garcia <1244>
Group: Archipelago: Chagos Archipelago
Country: United Kingdom - Chagos Archipelago BIOT
Lat: 6.57º S Long : 72.42º E
Area: 37.6 sq. km Altitude: 5 m
Shoreline: 113.4 km (scale 1:500000) Coastal Index: 3.0160
Land < 5 m elevation: 37.6 sq. km Sea level rise risk: 9
Depth to nearest land: 3000 m
Nearest island: 90 km group: 650 km
Nearest continent: Asia Distance: 1800 km Isolation Index: 77
ISLAND TYPE: atoll Natural Protection Indicator: 0
GEOLOGY/SOILS:
Atoll with continuous land rim of 60 km and average height under 2 m; lagoon 21 by 11 km, openings with 3 small islands to north
CLIMATE: wet tropical 27øC, 2290-2540 mm/year
CATASTROPHIC THREATS: earthquakes (1983)
Threat Indicator: 0
ECOSYSTEMS: Number of Ecosystems - Terrestrial: 5 Marine: 3
Broadleaved woodland with Ficus, Morinda and Terminalia (especially on smaller islands), Casuarina woodland, mixed coconut woodland, Scaevola scrub, marsh; windward and leeward atoll reefs, lagoon
Percent shoreline: Coral Reef: 99% Mangrove: 0%
http://islands.unep.ch/IMD.htm

Significant Earthquakes of the World for 1983

Nov 30 17 46 00.6 6.85 S 72.11 E 10 G 6.6 7.6 1.2 402 CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO REGION. Ms 7.7 (BRK).
Mo=1.1*10**20 Nm (GS). Mo=4.1*10**20 Nm (HRV).
Some damage (VI) to buildings and piers on Diego Garcia. About a 1.5 meter rise in wave height in the lagoon
and significant wave damage near the southeastern tip of the island. Forty-centimeter tsunami at Victoria,
Seychelles. Large zone of discolored sea water observed 60 to 70 kilometers north-northwest of Diego Garcia.
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/sig_1983.html

On November 30, 1983, at 21:46 local time, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale hit Diego Garcia.
It lasted 142 seconds.
http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/quake.html

MacDill AFB - Central Command - comes to mind - not exactly in a risk-free location for hurricanes

Soup,,

you mean that I am living 3 miles from a place that could get hit with a hurricane...... Mmmmm what did I miss when I moved here 30 years ago...

:evilgrin:

Perhaps my info is wrong. Hold onto the hope. After all, we've only lived in Florida for 20 years.

:evilgrin: back at ya :hi:

Still searching the news for info. I think you have a very valid original question in this thread.

But, what do I know? :crazy:

earthquakes do not, as I tell me California friends..

Just wish we had a Dem governor.... Grrrrr..

there was advanced warning of tsunami threats, but the gov'ts chose not to warn in advance

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Question: what do we know about Diego Garcia? Which military sector conducts major operations there? How many service personel are stationed there?

It does not surprise me that we may have heard nothing from the US military about Diego Garcia. Even Myannamar's foolish government just announced this morning that the country was hit with a horrible earthquake. Government secrecy knows no idiocy.

They had B-52s / B-1s and at times B-2s ......

And all the people that support them.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/dg.html

Diego Garcia proved to be critically important as a refueling base during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and during Operation Desert Fox, it served as a base for B-52 bombers, which on Dec. 17, 1998, launched nearly 100 long-range cruise missiles aimed at Iraq. Beginning on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States again used Diego Garcia when it launched B-1 and B-52 bomber attacks against Afghanistan, in retaliation for the Taliban's harboring of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Currently, a number of al-Qaeda suspects are being held and interrogated on the island. Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin), the leader of the Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, responsible for the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali, is currently being held on the island. During the 2003 British and American-led war against Iraq, the Diego Garcia once again played a crucial strategic role.

The history of the U.S. base on Diego Garcia is of special interest now. The base was built by Halliburton and commissioned on March 20, 1973. Exactly 30 years later, on March 20, 2003, the Shock and Awe bombing campaign was launched from Diego Garcia. This base has been a recent topic of discussion in the British House of Commons. The people who inhabited Diego Garcia, until the United States forced them to leave, are now seeking justice. Court documents reveal that a policy of ethnic cleansing by the U.S. government has continued for over 30 years.
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/jackowski08012004

Still looking for news. None here:
http://www.navy.mil/local/nmcdg/


edit to add - getting an education about Diego Garcia, if nothing else. Thanks for your info, GloriaSmith.

but I wasn't even sure we were still there.

still nothing in the news .

I think they may have been a bit away. They seem to be occuring 91-95 E and 3-7 N.

It's an interesting observation. Is it just an air way station or do they have Naval operations there too?

From what I've seen, the tsunami hit up in the Bay of Bengal. I can't find a map of it to see if waves moved towards Diego Garcia or not.

and was surprised to see nothing.

The African east coast got hit; Diego Garcia must have, too.

Was it evacuated? And if it was, did it receive warning long before the nations of the region which were hit?

at the end of the article here:

One island in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia, apparently was spared damage from the tsunamis. The island, a British territory, 1,000 miles south of India, houses about 1,700 U.S. military personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors. Lt. Col. Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, said the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia apparently was safe.

"There are no reports of any damage there," Bigelow said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29794-2004Dec27.html

---

PENTAGON The U-S Navy says all of its ships and other assets survived south Asia's killer tsunami with no significant damage.
The closest U-S base to the affected area is on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. The base emerged unscathed.

A Navy official says three P-3 Orion aircraft have been deployed to Thailand. The aircraft are geared for survey work. A spokesman says they don't engage directly in search and rescue operations, but they are an invaluable resource for such missions. Their crews can spot people stranded in the tidal wave area and can even drop life rafts to them.
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2736548

I just got an email from a friend who works on the island, and he said other than overcast skies, things are dandy at DG.

eta: my speelin suks