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Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Post by Krypter

So an 8.9 earthquake just hit Japan, and they are currently being flooded by a large Tsunami. Anyone else following this story?

"The epicenter was 373 kilometers (231 miles) away from the capital, Tokyo, the United States Geological Survey said. But residents there felt the tremors.

The quake rattled buildings and toppled cars off bridges and into waters underneath. Waves of debris flowed like lava across farmland, pushing boats, houses and trailers toward highways."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

If you don't have TV, here's an Al Jazeera broadcast: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Tokyo is incredibly well designed to sustain such an impact. Being a resident in California, it certainly reminds me of the impending "big one" that we've been (grudgingly) waiting for...(##RESPBREAK##)12##DELIM##Krypter##DELIM##

Post by Haxzor

^&*!

Post by mindthegap5

It's awful just seen the videos on the news.
lets not forget this either
"Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan."

Post by 327953

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Gnub

Tragic. Hoping for the best in the recovery of the catastrophe, and that noone here is directly affected by it in any way. :/

Still, I couldn't help but think about GoGoGodzilla...

Post by Berelain

IRIS seismic monitor to give you a sense of scale:
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

Bear in mind that for every 1 point on the moment magnitude scale, you're looking at a 32x increase in energy. So a 9 is 1000 times more powerful than a 7.

Tsunami warning centre. Detailed info on locations warnings.
http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/?region=0

USGS earthquake summary
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php#details

Moment tensor solution indicates that (unsrprisingly) it was a thrust fault activation. Seems to be confirmed as an 8.9.

As far as deaths go, Japan won't be the problem - they're the most earthquake prepared nation on the planet, and most cities are at decent altitude. The real deaths will occur when it hits a) the pacific islands, and b) the west coast of S America. The pacific islands ar eth big one, as the wave is likely to be taller than the entire relief of some of these islands - i.e. it has the potential to completely submerge them.

Also, the seismogram from our seismometer in our department (I work in a university Earth Sciences department just outside London). First Pwave arrival was around 6am GMT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/OrbitalPete/Japan11March11-3.png

EDIT - confirmed as the 6th largest earthquake on record

Also, there was a 7.2 magnitude foreshock on Wednesday. USGS have got an information poster about it here. Todays earthquake was the same mechanism.

Post by MrSCH

Hearts go out to those affected by this. Those who have fallen, we salute you.

Post by Cyonisper

Oh God.. I have a friend of mine which is serving over in Japan... I pray he is alright.
To those who have suffered from this natural disaster, you are in my thoughts.

Post by Berelain

All US military in Japan are safe and accounted for. Remarkable lack of reported deaths there to date. They're found several hundred bodies on a beach in the North, but that (at this point) is the majority of reported deaths. My guess is that number will climb a fair bit in the coming hours/days - there's a train and several passenger boats unnaccounted for for example.

Post by Azazel

The islands in the Pacific Ocean are so &*!@ed now.

Post by Tauge

Japan learned a lot from the Kobe quake 1995. Most buildings are earthquake retrofitted. Earthquake drills are a common part of their lives. They've been preparing for this for the last 15 years. Honestly, I'd be surprised if the death toll was above 1000 and I think most of those will be due to the tsunami.

Post by xaratherus

On top of the natural disasters, authorities reported that several of the nuclear power facilities in the region went into emergency shutdown when the quake hit; at least one of them was on fire (now possibly extinguished), while another reports that its cooling system has failed completely.

Post by Berelain

Oh yeah, it'll be the Tsunami that kills. But it's engulfed huge areas of land, so don't underestimate the potential for it to kill.

As far as the pacific islands go, the wave appears to have hit Hawaii with waveheights cresting at about 2m, so the other pacific islands may not be too badly off. Depends what the tides are doing when they hit tbh.

Post by kasuturo

Livestream from Japanese TV: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight

Warning: there are twitter trolls saying stuff like "where's your goku now" and some disturbing images from time to time.

Post by soccergenius

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I'm glad that Japan prepares and drills for these things or more people could have died =(

Post by Interest

I saw this when opening up Firefox. Giant tsunami alert on Google...

It doesn't sound good...8.9 earthquake?...o.0

Post by 327953

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Monday

I hope they aren't hit too badly...

Are there any related deaths?

Post by Tauge

I hope they aren't hit too badly...

Are there any related deaths?

CNN is reporting "hundreds of bodies" in the Tsunami affected areas, but there isn't much information that I've found about the the areas hit hardest by the quake's effects. However, it could have been much much worse. The epicenter was somewhere around 150 km off the coast, imagine if it had been under a major city like what happened during the Kobe quake.

Post by xaratherus

The last I read were 90 confirmed. However, BBC was reporting that police confirmed anywhere from 200-300 bodies on a beach near Sendai (close to the epicenter), which appeared to have drowned.

Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

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