Hi All,

I see from news reports it appears New Zealand was spared from last nights large earthquake, but the news also reports another possible disaster on the horizon for Bangladesh. Information is hard to obtain at times about some area's, but what's happening there now has come to light in the following article.

Major earthquake could devastate Bangladesh'

HITTAGONG, Bangladesh: An expert fears Bangladesh is in line for a major earthquake after 27 tremors were recorded in the port city of Chittagong in the past eight months, officials said on Sunday.

Officials at the southeastern city's seismic observatory said that the tremors were mainly mild but that six were recorded in August alone.

"One of the tremors that hit Chittagong and adjoining areas was measured at 5.45 on the Richter Scale," one observatory official said.

Jahangir Alam, a faculty member of the Bangladesh Institute of Technology, said: "Tremors with a magnitude of three to four on the Richter scale are frequently shaking Chittagong, while minor ones go unrecorded."

In 1997, six people were killed by an earthquake in Chittagong, while several hundred mud-made homes were demolished on Maheskhali island in the Bay of Bengal.

Alam warned that most buildings in Chittagong, the country's main port, as well as in the capital Dhaka would collapse in a major earthquake as they were not designed to withstand large tremors.
( AFP )