Japan Quake

Post by **Vain** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:42 am

This one is HUGE !!

gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/03/massive-8-9-earthquake-hits-japan-tsunami-slams-japanese-coast/

Apparently we have a tsunami warning here in Auckland for early this morning - and there's one for Hawaii and a bunch of other places

Post by **Seareach** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:24 am

Yeah, it's terrible. The tsunami footage is horrific!

Post by **Damelon** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:44 am

The pictures of the devastation are stunning!

BBC has a map of the times the tsunami is expected to land throughout the Pacific embedded in this article.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:21 pm

Holy cow!!! Horrifying! In one clip, you can see a car pulling off the road, starting to head out into the fields to try to outrun it! It's Japan, and I can't help but see it as the aftermath of a Godzilla movie, and it's every bit as bad as that.

Hawaii will get hit in less than an hour. They can't judge how bad it will be.

Post by **Cybrweez** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:09 pm

Yea, the footage is unreal. Buildings swept along the water, while on fire. People walking on bridges when cars and boats are swept underneath them. Amazing.

I'm reminded that in NJ, we never, I mean never, experience natural disasters of any magnitude.

Post by **Rigel** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:00 pm

That's incredible. I can't imagine how many people's lives are completely destroyed by this, even if they somehow managed to get out before it hit.

Post by **danlo** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:39 pm

Unreal, damn...

Post by **High Lord Tolkien** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:19 pm

Why am I always surprised to be reminded when these things happen that we are all just tiny playthings when it comes to the magnitude of force that the Earth can hit us with?

My heart goes out to them.

Post by **aliantha** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:47 pm

Mine too. And I'm hoping that our West Coast Watchers are okay, as the tsunami is headed there...

Post by **balon!** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:53 pm

Terrible...

Haven't heard anything yet, a few of the libraries on the coast are closing for the day.

Last I heard Washington was looking at a 4-5 ft wave..not enough I think to do massive damage.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:04 pm

Actual wave height on the Washington coast was only about 18 inches higher than nominal. No damage. This time.

Got email from a coworker in Japan. He's OK, but said getting home from work (opposite side of Tokyo) was an ordeal. Scary stuff.

Post by **Avatar** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:45 pm

Yeah, this was a bad one.

--A

Post by **balon!** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:54 pm

Savor Dam wrote:Actual wave height on the Washington coast was only about 18 inches higher than nominal. No damage. This time.

Got email from a coworker in Japan. He's OK, but said getting home from work (opposite side of Tokyo) was an ordeal. Scary stuff.

I had a friend who postulated these earthquakes in Chile and now Japan are a sign the Ring of Fire is going off...Washington may go soon, and I've been hearing my whole life that Rainier is many years overdue for an eruption...scary stuff.

Glad to hear your friend is alright.

Post by **Seareach** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:22 am

balon! wrote:I had a friend who postulated these earthquakes in Chile and now Japan are a sign the Ring of Fire is going off...Washington may go soon, and I've been hearing my whole life that Rainier is many years overdue for an eruption...scary stuff.

Yes, NZ is on the Ring of Fire as well. I found a earthquake map for earthquakes in the RoF for weeks and couple of months. Definitely looks like it's moving around a whole lot.

Poor Japan.

My friend Fe has friends who are in Japan. They had been in Tokyo and that morning caught a bullet train up north (so north east of the epicenter). They got the quake but not affected by tsunami. They're supposed to fly out in a couple of days but not sure yet whether they'll be able to get back to Tokyo for a while.

An incredible set of aerial photographs! www.boingboing.net/2011/03/11/from-the-sky-aerial.html

Post by **Rigel** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:57 am

Boston Globe has a great series of pictorials called "The Big Picture."

They've already got one up on this. Check it out.

Post by **Vraith** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:13 am

balon! wrote:
Savor Dam wrote:Actual wave height on the Washington coast was only about 18 inches higher than nominal. No damage. This time.

Got email from a coworker in Japan. He's OK, but said getting home from work (opposite side of Tokyo) was an ordeal. Scary stuff.
I had a friend who postulated these earthquakes in Chile and now Japan are a sign the Ring of Fire is going off...Washington may go soon, and I've been hearing my whole life that Rainier is many years overdue for an eruption...scary stuff.

I'm pretty sure that Los Angeles, also on the Ring, is long overdue for one of its big ones as well...been something like twice as long since last one as average gap between, IIRC from when I lived there.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:48 am

Being ex-NASA, I also have heard speculation that this may have been related to the upcoming (relatively!) close approach of the moon. The full moon coming up next week will be closer to Earth than normal (only 221 thousand miles), which increases tidal stresses on seismic plates as well as the oceans.

Opinions vary on whether this is a factor, but bear in mind the last time Luna was so close during its full phase (when it and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth and the gravitational pulls are in different directions) was in January 2005...about the time of the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia.

Post by **Avatar** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:20 pm

Damn, it's bad there. More than 10,000 known missing. Serious threats with their nuclear plants.

Japan Races To Avert Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns

Koriyama - Japan's nuclear crisis intensified on Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns.

Authorities have evacuated more than 170 000 people in the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors - including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening on Sunday - to prevent the disaster from growing worse.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said on Sunday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown.

That follows a blast the day before in the power plant's Unit 1 and operators attempted to prevent a meltdown there by injecting sea water into it.

"At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion," Edano said.

"If there is an explosion, however, there would be no significant impact on human health."

More than 170 000 people had been evacuated as a precaution, though Edano said the radioactivity released into the environment so far was so small it didn't pose any health threats.

He said none of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors was near the point of complete meltdown and he was confident of escaping the worst scenarios.

A complete meltdown - the collapse of a power plant's ability to keep temperatures under control - could release uranium and dangerous contaminants into the environment and pose major, widespread health risks.

Decrease

Up to 160 people, including 60 elderly patients and medical staff who had been waiting for evacuation in the nearby town of Futabe, and 100 others evacuating by bus, might have been exposed to radiation, said Ryo Miyake, a spokesperson from Japan's nuclear agency.

The severity of their exposure, or if it had reached dangerous levels, was not clear. They were being taken to hospitals.

Edano said operators were trying to cool and decrease the pressure in the Unit 3 reactor, just as they had the day before at Unit 1.

"We're taking measures on Unit 3 based on a similar possibility" of a partial meltdown, Edano said.

Japan struggled with the nuclear crisis as it tried to determine the scale of the Friday disasters, when an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful in the country's recorded history, was followed by a tsunami that savaged its northeastern coast with breathtaking speed and power.

More than 1 400 people were killed and hundreds more were missing, according to officials, but police in one of the worst-hit areas estimated the toll there alone could eventually top 10 000.

The scale of the multiple disasters appeared to be outpacing the efforts of Japanese authorities to bring the situation under control more than two days after the initial quake.

--A

Post by **Fire Daughter** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:01 pm

Yahoo has set up a page where people can go and donate to the relief effort online.

news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

Our prayers and hearts go out to all the people devastated by this tragic event.

Post by **lurch** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:42 pm

The scale of this event expanded long ago, beyond my ability to comprehend and or fathom. I am made a dwarf in my understanding and emotions.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Japan Quake

Japan Quake