MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Another Earthquake for the pacific region, 8.8 and reports of Tsunamis.
Hope there isn't a big loss of life.
Sky reporting a 3-4 metre tsunami in Tokyo!
Its a bit sobering watching the Tsunami flooding across the fields and catching cars on the roads its crossing.
I hope that helicoptor is using a good zoom (i.e. far away) as that petrochem site looks like its going to go up in one huge fireball.
That wave is horrific, relentless.
I'm glad we live on old and relatively stable geology.
Live coverage on BBC here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598
Just been watching the live coverage - bloody hell thats horrendous, people trying to flee on roads as the continuous wall of water just destroys everything in its seemingly never ending path 😯
I wonder if its because of the Supermoon. 😯
I switched to Sky as BBC News were still fitting it in between other items half an hour ago. I notice the camera tends to pan away if they catch scenes where people or moving vehicles are getting caught.
Milkie, no, unusual tides etc yes, but I can't imagine it would trigger an earthquake, and the Tsunami is a direct result of the earthquake.
I notice the camera tends to pan away if they catch scenes where people or moving vehicles are getting caught.
Yep, thats the bits I saw, sickening 🙁
Scary. Best mate lives in Tokyo.
Best coverage is on Al Jazeera English. As usual.
7.x magnitude aftershocks, which is mental. Nuclear plants being shut down in Japan, but their fuel rod cooling systems aren't coming online as expected, which is bad. Pretty much anywhere with a Pacific coastline on tsunami watch. DART buoys are measuring somewhere between a 1-2m wave tracking across the ocean. Doesn't sound much, but a 1m wave in 6-mile deep water translates to a frickin' huge wave when it hits coastal waters. Hawaii and Indonesia due to be hit round about 1-1:30pm our time.
Some earthquake watcher/geologist on another forum has explained that a 8.9 magnitude earthquake is like the surface detonation of a 330 megaton bomb. For comparison, Hiroshima was a ~15 kiloton bomb and the largest ever nuclear detonation, Tsar Bomba, was a 'mere' 50 megaton. A frightening amount of energy released.
I'm now sacking off work to go and sit in the TV room.
Oh I didn't see this thread, started my own - oops.
One of my Facebook friends has friends in Japan posting about their families with whom they can't get in touch.. 🙁
BBC man is saying that the tsunami might completely swamp some Pacific islands.
(The Flying Ox live Al Jazeera English streaming here
[url] http://english.aljazeera.net/demandaljazeera/ [/url] )
it looks horrific! the biggest earthquake for over 100 years they reckon.i hope not too many people get injured/killed.i would say all people,but unfortunately there have been people killed.that wave was just taking everything in it's way like matchsticks.there seems to be a few happening around the globe.i feel lucky to live somewhere where we don't get earthquakes.
Milkie, no, unusual tides etc yes, but I can't imagine it would trigger an earthquake, and the Tsunami is a direct result of the earthquake.
Read on the interweb, which never lies, that the gravitational pull of the moon could affect the magma below the crust, especially as its coming up to the closest its been in 19 years on March 19th. Everytime this happens there are extreme weather changes and stuff. But the way I see it is it cannot really be proved if its the moon or coincidence.. I'll go with the moon, supermoon!
Whacked it on the projector in class, an amazing but horrendous site
I do feel for them all!
I was watching the Sky coverage on one of the work computers and it's just unbelievable, you just can't comprehend the scale of what you're seeing. Terrifying.
There's also the worrying prospect of further quakes around the Pacific Rim as well, if I lived in California, especially SF, I'd be getting a bit apprehensive. Oddly enough a collection of colour photos of the 1912 SF quake have come to light in the Smithsonian. Amazing quality, too.
I was watching a bit this morning with some crazy guy wandering along a bridge watching the torrent - I don't suppose he realised how much of a battering the bridge was taking (you could see it physically shaking with the force). :-O
just shown pictures of a huge explosion at an oil refinery on the bbc, the scale of this is staggering.
It is truly staggering - can't keep my eyes off the coverage.
I saw that. The water was rising in seconds, not minutes like in flash floods.
My mate was on 24th floor in Tokyo, said it was pretty grim, gas storage place nearby exploded, they were all evacuated then allowed back in to get their belongings.
Images of the wave crossing an airport are awesome. Looks like a horror film never mind a disaster film.
Just got word from my sister that our brother in Tokyo, and his wife and kids are okay, 🙂
Obviously, a lot more families in northern Japan are not so fortunate 🙁
Truly amazing footage on the news channels. I hope the aftershocks are not too severe.
Crapping hell. Its going to be worse than the 95 Kyoto earthquake.
Just caught a bit on the footage of the wave smothering the country, and on the other side of the shot is a car speeding down the road trying to escape. Sh*t 🙁
Hora - apparently it is the worst quake to hit Japan in 300 years :-O
I was supposed to be in Tokyo on Monday, looks like that isn't happening now!
Hearing from some very shocked people
japan has declared a nuclear emergency, due to failure of the cooling system of one of it's reactors.
:-O jeebus
Oh crud.
Good lord. I think if you lived in certain parts of the world you could be forgiven for believing the apocalypse was here.
Check out the number of earthquakes [i]still happening[/i] in Japan:
[url= http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php ]http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php[/url]
Mme Moonteresse is on holiday in Hawaii, she has been evacuated to higher ground.
Just got off fb were a few of my fb friends i often talk to are waiting for it to hit in the philippines,we might live in a country with crap weather but are so lucky in many ways.
I spoke to a close friend a short while ago who was out in Tokyo and Sendai last November; she has friends all around the region, so she's desperately worried. She has Japanese tourists at her hotel, and Japanese seasonal staff, so has a big connection to the country, and I've got to know a few quite well over the years, which makes it rather more personal, not just extraordinary pictures on a screen.
oh dear.
they've started evacuating the residents near that nuclear power plant where the cooling system failed. 😯
http://www.shanghaidaily.org/article/?id=465954&type=Metro
www.shanghaidaily.org
a scary prediction in this mornings Shanghai daily
BBC are now reporting 80,000 missing
I hope it's a typo : (
Yeah I just seen that too!! 88,000 they're saying now
I wish I could be there to help out. Do something.
Me too, you would think the UN could have for want of a better term "a Thunderbirds team".
would all jumping up at the same time achive anything??
Holy cow.. those fires...
its crazy that some of the buildings are being swept away are on fire...
[url= http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/11/world/asia/20110311_japan.html?ref=asia#1 ]New york times images[/url]
Me too, you would think the UN could have for want of a better term "a Thunderbirds team".
They do. If you'd been paying attention to BBC news this morning you'd have heard the UN have something like 30 international rescue teams currently on standby. We in the UK have Internationl Rescue, who have only just returned from CHch in New Zealand after assisting in search the wreckage for survivors. What they [i]don't[/i] have, however, is Thunderbirds 1-4. Not that they'd be much use against a wall of water thirty feet high.
I know it sounds like a stupid question to ask why, but I'm surprised to see so many flooded buildings on fire.
I guess cookers and heaters get knocked over before they get submerged.
It's just something I wouldn't have anticipated.
Most buildings in rural areas of Japan tend to be timber construction, and they are floating on top of the debris, so any source of ignition will have plenty of fuel. It's why Tokyo was destroyed in a firestorm, most buildings were timber and paper, once a fire starts, it's difficult to stop.
Grim indeed.
Hope they sort that nuke's cooling system. 😯
Is Bruce Willis available?
Japanese authorities now taking about a release of radioactive pressure is needed in the reactor....to atmosphere...
Sky are playing this down but it seems incredibly serious to me
1836: The power of the earthquake off north-east Japan shifted the earth's axis by nearly 10in (25cm), Earth-issues.com reports, citing the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. The phenomenon is not unusual for a major quake.
Got this from the BBC site. So for those who know, what would that do?
Is there a Seismic Track world forum that anyone know of... Where is best for decent conversation on this - ive had enough of Sky News now after watching on and off since 7 this morning.
I don't think there is that much more news to be told on the subject. It's an earthquake, the ground shakes a lot. Actual news from the ground is understandably in short supply.
And why are you watching Sky news? It's awful.
Why didn't the TV Helicopter land and pick up those poor folk who were right in the path of that wall of debris? 😯
1836: The power of the earthquake off north-east Japan shifted the earth's axis by nearly 10in (25cm), Earth-issues.com reports, citing the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. The phenomenon is not unusual for a major quake.
Got this from the BBC site. So for those who know, what would that do?
Changes atmosphere pressure and weather by a slight degree. So the gulfstream will/wont reach certain areas in the same way. Negligable.
For those that wear tin hats- it means in 1,000 years time we will be 200miles closer to the moon at its closest point compared to previously on some parts of the orbits..
All figures approx however the theory is good.
Where did you get that from Hora? The Earth and Moon are steadily moving away from each other as tidal forces slow the roatation of the Earth and conservation of angular momentum means the two move further apart to compensate. 200 miles seems a lot for a small initial impulse.
As for the super moon mentioned earlier I wouldn't diss the idea too soon. The whole Eath flexes with tidal forces; it's not just the water that follows the moon. A bit more plater flex than usual might be enough to trigger an already highly stressed fault.
Hate to say it as it is a horrific event but I am literally about to start teaching Earthquakes to Year 8 on Monday. Couldn't of had better grim timing.
It's the Nuclear power stations not having electricity to pump cooling systems that is more worrying now.
my first thought was not another Chenobyl as a redtricted/dead zone in such a tiny island (as a worsecase)
Please don't scare them. Socialist teachers scared me senseless over nuclear war/winter scenarios. I didn't go on to be a influencer in politics either so fear wasted.
Please don't scare them
The news from Fukushima No 1 seems to be getting worse... 😥
The Earth and Moon are steadily moving away from each other as tidal forces slow the roatation of the Earth and conservation of angular momentum means the two move further apart to compensate.
Surely if the Moon slows down it'll get closer to the Earth?
[url= http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-quake-nuclear-us-analysis-idUSTRE72B04C20110312 ]Snap analysis: Japan may have hours to prevent nuclear meltdown[/url]
😐
Wow, isn't nuclear power wonderful.
The good thing, as everyone keeps telling me, is that it's foolproof.
Things have changed so much since Chernobyl that accidents simply just can't happen any more, apparently.
They've covered all the bases and we really don't need to worry our silly little heads about it, as they are the experts and they know best.
I'd therefore like to apologise to all those of who told and told me that nuclear power was completely safe.
I'm sorry I disagreed and said that because humanity was involved in the design and production process, it was inevitable that things would go runny somewhere sooner or later.
Don't I feel stupid now.....
Wow, isn't sarcasm wonderful.
The good thing, as everyone keeps telling me, is that it gives me both a sense of moral superiority and a chance to display my sparkling wit.
This stat that the "wall of water" travels at 500mph. Am I right in thinking that it isn't water displacing at that speed but it's the energy that's travelling at 500mph and the movement of water at the end is just a reaction to this energy.
A mate lives in Sendai with his wife and two young kids. We watched the news images in horror... Amazingly had an email response from them late last night - safe, had "shelter", but no power, water etc.
carbon337,that's how I understand it.
The wave is travelling at 500mph, not the water its self.
It's like spinning ballet dancers molgrips, the closer the arms are in the faster the dancer pirouettes. The earth and moon tumble around each other in a common orbit around the sun. The Earth is spinning but slowing due to tdal forces/drag; day length has increased through geological time. Momentum is conserved however, so the angular momentum lost by the Earth is conserved within the Earth-Moon system; the Moon and Earth both move out from the centre of gravity of the system which is the point they tumble around.
The media are loving this. France 3 and N24 both had hour-long tsunami/earthquake specials last night. I couldn't resist watching both. :-/
N24 was report radiation levels a 1000 times higher than normal. 🙁
This stat that the "wall of water" travels at 500mph. Am I right in thinking that it isn't water displacing at that speed but it's the energy that's travelling at 500mph and the movement of water at the end is just a reaction to this energy.
When you say the energy, how is this demonstrated? Excuse my ignorance.
I'm quite interested in all this as I live in NZ, and the latest is that we've had a 6.2 in Tonga, which always worry's me, being just down the way.
This stat that the "wall of water" travels at 500mph. Am I right in thinking that it isn't water displacing at that speed but it's the energy that's travelling at 500mph and the movement of water at the end is just a reaction to this energy.
I think in deep water, the tsunami actually travels at many hundreds of km/h. As the water gets shallower, the wave slows down but gets higher. There's some maths involved to do with inverse squares, but it's far too early in the morning to be thinking about that.
I see, thanks. I guess that is why you get more than one wave then. I see that it hit Califonia quite badly. More than a fwe times. I didn't see much damgage as yet from Hawaii, but then the it's deeper there (maybe?) It's all kicking off south of the equator thou i can tell you. Everyone is a bit worried what's going to happan next.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
0810: Japanese media reports say that radioactivity has risen 20-fold outside the Fukushima-Daiichi plant.
0822: The Associated Press cites Fukushima Prefecture official Masato Abe as saying the cause of the white smoke seen above the plant is still under investigation, and that it's unclear whether there was an explosion.
0828: Japan's NHK TV showing before and after pictures of the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. It appears to show that the outer structure of one of four buildings at the plant is no longer there.
Even allowing for sensationalist reporting, this doesn't look good.
they are showing video of an explosion on the bbc website 😯
Public school prick at BBC: Are there any british amongst the jolly foreigner natives?
What the British Ambasador should have said 'why the **** do you always ask that inane question? Are 10,000 grieving relatives of less value than 10 you insensitive idiot'?