Giant earthquake has hit Japan

The video of the tsunami inundating the Sendai airport is very impressive.
 
Yet thankfully the reports indicate that loss of life is realativly small. They say thats because the quake alerted the community to the impending Tsunami. Its been reported that the Tsunami's do most damage when they hit away from the quake zone and thus there is no notice. Be interesting to see videos from Hawaii.
 
Glad it didn't hit Louisiana. The locals there would have just "ridden it out."

AdamZ said:
Yet thankfully the reports indicate that loss of life is realativly small. They say thats because the quake alerted the community to the impending Tsunami. Its been reported that the Tsunami's do most damage when they hit away from the quake zone and thus there is no notice. Be interesting to see videos from Hawaii.
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My contact Hideshi, about whom I wrote in another thread is located about 60 miles from Tokyo. My former wife e-mailed him at 5:30 EST this morning, unknowing if his prefecture has electricity. She's had no response thus far.

HR
 
steingar said:
The most powerful ever recorded, if I am not mistaken.
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Chili was stronger. A good source is USGS.
But then again, it doesn't matter much. At 7 or above, we can expect significant damage. Worse still, are the 100s of aftershocks; many over 7.
 
silver-eagle said:
Chili was stronger. A good source is USGS.
But then again, it doesn't matter much. At 7 or above, we can expect significant damage. Worse still, are the 100s of aftershocks; many over 7.
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Plus the each increase of 1 magnitude is 10x increase in energy. That 8.9 released over 100 times more energy then the strongest quake I've felt, ever.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Plus the each increase of 1 magnitude is 10x increase in energy. That 8.9 released over 100 times more energy then the strongest quake I've felt, ever.
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My understanding is that each .1 equals 100x energy, so it was actually 1000 times more energy

:hairraise:
 
 
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Lawreston said:
My contact Hideshi, about whom I wrote in another thread is located about 60 miles from Tokyo. My former wife e-mailed him at 5:30 EST this morning, unknowing if his prefecture has electricity. She's had no response thus far.

HR
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I e-mailed my stepbrother who lives in what I believe to be a suburb of Tokyo. He responded within minutes. This is part of the message he sent me.
We are all fine. I was walking the dogs and picking up the crap and when I had trouble standing up and felt dizzy I thought my body was finally giving up. When I reAlized it was a big earthquake I ran home to check on Yoko (his wife). We ran into the unit bath room during three after shocks but finally no damage to the house. Only Chitchi's (his stepdaughter) picture fell off the bookshelf.

Since the trains stopped running Yoko and I and the two dogs drove to her high school to pick her up.

We went to dinner at a family restaurant for Misato's (his other stepdaughter) birthday and as we were leaving they closed shop because employees cannot come to work.

Luckily I did not go to work in the City today because people are unable to get home because of the trains or are walking home.

Anyway, we are all safe.
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I don't know my stepbrother that well because I was 20 and he was in his mid-30s when our parents married. He moved to LA and then to Japan shortly after that. He could be an inspiration to Peggy. He was born and raised in Denver speaking very little Japanese then he moved to Japan permanently. I think he took some intensive Japanese courses when he first moved there so that he could get a job but I believe most of his written work (banking law) is done in English.
 
silver-eagle said:
About 10x. But then, the difference between 300 megatons and 400 megatons probably don't mean much if you're in the middle of it.
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Which brings up the next issue. We humans suck at grasping the meaning large numbers. Honestly I can't properly grasp the energy differences above 7.8 beyond "It's much bigger".

To add to that, the reference that is often used to explain this level of energy to the public could be somewhat insensitive when referring to the region.
 
I just received an e-mail from Her Majesty(former wife), as follows:

"ALRIGHT...THIS IS WHAT I JUST LEARNED...HIDESHI LIVES IN KANAGAWA PREFECTURE WHICH IS NEAR SHONAN BEACH...I JUST "DIALED UP" : SHONAN BEACH JAPAN...

CLICK ON NHK WORLD TV ENGLISH

THEY'LL HAVE A SMALL SCREEN ON THE RIGHT SIDE SPEAKING IN JAPANESE BUT IT WILL EVENTUALLY CHANGE OVER TO ENGRISH
***********************************************************
THEY JUST ISSUED EVACUATION OF KANAGAWA & EVERY OTHER PLACE ALL THE WAY AROUND THAT AREA...EAAST COAST & WEST COAST...I THINK THE TIDAL WAVES CIRCLED THE ISLAND SOMEHOW....
***********************************************************
ANOTHER SITE TO TRY IS: FNN TV FUJI NEWS
AND...RADIO ONLINE SHONAN BEACH FM 78.9 TOKYO LIVE STREAMING FROM JAPAN."

I've tried to break her of the YELLING, but without success.

HR
 
Pi1otguy said:
Which brings up the next issue. We humans suck at grasping the meaning large numbers. Honestly I can't properly grasp the energy differences above 7.8 beyond "It's much bigger".

To add to that, the reference that is often used to explain this level of energy to the public could be somewhat insensitive when referring to the region.
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For exactly that the Modified Mercalli Scale was developed.

I have a friend who was at the airport ready to board back to the states when the quake struck. Just this morning we finally heard she is okay. Lack of food and facilities, no power, but most peeps staying calm. Seasoned travelers....
 
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Friend of mine was on a UA flight to NRT, connecting to another city in Asia. They were about an hour out, ended up circling, then diverting to Yokota. After a few hours on the plane, and a new load of fuel, they went to Osaka, where he is now in a hotel 90 minutes from the airport. He's rebooked the connection to go out of KIX, meaning he'll only lose 24 hours.
 
They're evacuating people now because a nuclear plant is registering a leak :( hopefully no more lives lost.

My best thoughts to anyone there.
 
wsuffa said:
Friend of mine was on a UA flight to NRT, connecting to another city in Asia. They were about an hour out, ended up circling, then diverting to Yokota. After a few hours on the plane, and a new load of fuel, they went to Osaka, where he is now in a hotel 90 minutes from the airport. He's rebooked the connection to go out of KIX, meaning he'll only lose 24 hours.
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I have a friend in Taipei who was supposed to come home today via NRT. His flight has been canceled and he is being routed through HK and will not leave until Monday. HE put on FB that NRT is closed. I have not seen for how long.
 
ScottM said:
I have a friend in Taipei who was supposed to come home today via NRT. His flight has been canceled and he is being routed through HK and will not leave until Monday. HE put on FB that NRT is closed. I have not seen for how long.
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My understanding, too, is that NRT is closed. HND is supposedly "partially" open, but there is no public transit in Tokyo at this point, so it doesn't do much good to open either one (except for transit passengers).

Looks like a few flights enroute, though.
 
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wsuffa said:
That's been in the news from multiple sources. I think there are three in trouble: the one that's lost cooling, the one that's overpressure in the containment building, and one that had a fire. But I may be wrong.
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I heard about the first two that you mentioned and you repeated what I heard. I have not heard about a third one though. I know there was a fire new the Chiba prefecture border at a gas storage facility. Could that be what they are referring to?

FYI I have a friend that I used to work with who lives about 75 miles north of Tokyo. That is halfway to Sendai and so far he has not responded to emails. I am hoping it is just a power outage or other priorities that he has.
 
ScottM said:
I heard about the first two that you mentioned and you repeated what I heard. I have not heard about a third one though. I know there was a fire new the Chiba prefecture border at a gas storage facility. Could that be what they are referring to?

FYI I have a friend that I used to work with who lives about 75 miles north of Tokyo. That is halfway to Sendai and so far he has not responded to emails. I am hoping it is just a power outage or other priorities that he has.
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IAEA said there was a fire at the Onagawa nuclear plant but it had been extinguished.

Hope your friend is OK. I'm aware of at least one other person that can't be reached.
 
An earthquake expert on the tube said that the two quakes this year are similar in type to those that occurred last year and that the odds for the U. S. having one of this magniture are higher than we'd like to think. Gulp.
 
This wasn't the strongest earthquake in Japan's recorded history. There's written accounts of a similar - and likely more powerful - quake about 800 AC in that same area.

This is interesting because it just goes to show how long it takes to build up the energy for such a big quake. It's literally a once-in-a-millennium occurrence.
 
James_Dean said:
I'm certainly no nuke engineer, but this can't be good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMEV-_X5b_8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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No, it can't, but it doesn't speak to the primary containment dome inside. What appeared to blow was the secondary containment. Making an assumption here that hydrogen gas built up in the secondary containment, then it is still possible that there was little release.

But that's pure speculation until we hear more from the experts.
 
wsuffa said:
But that's pure speculation until we hear more from the experts.
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'Zactly. What's happening right here on our own forum is the equivalent of the hausfrau saying she heard the engine stall just before the crash.
 
wsuffa said:
No, it can't, but it doesn't speak to the primary containment dome inside. What appeared to blow was the secondary containment. Making an assumption here that hydrogen gas built up in the secondary containment, then it is still possible that there was little release.

But that's pure speculation until we hear more from the experts.
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Their instrumentation should be able to answer the "how much" question pretty quickly, and just as importantly "what". The type of radioactive materials released will tell how much damage, if any there is to the reactor itself. If they release radioactive noble gases, that's not much of a hazard to people. If they release Iodine or Cesium nuclides, that's more of a concern.
 
catmandu said:
'Zactly. What's happening right here on our own forum is the equivalent of the hausfrau saying she heard the engine stall just before the crash.
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Not at all. Before you allege something like that, consider that some of us may have a bit more than a passing knowledge of the subject (or the friends/resources to learn same).

It would be more akin to an A&P or high-time pilot stating that they heard the engine stop before the crash.

The experts are speaking now....
Japan's chief government spokesman, Yukio Edano, later told reporters that the blast occurred when vapor from the reactor's steel container turned into hydrogen and mixed with outside oxygen, the Kyodo news agency reported. Edano said the explosion blew off the roof and walls of the building around the containment vessel but did no serious damage to the container itself.
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