8.8 Quake hits Japan... tsunami warnings issued
 

USGS is listing it as a 8.9.

Either way - it is freaking HUGE

The video of the tsunamis are incredible

2nd wave coming in... 1st was bad... this looks.... epically bad. No other way to put it.

I'm watching a fire floating on water

Kevy: If there's a dragon, you're watching Fantasmic. If there's floating cars, it's the news.

Okay, they upgraded our tsunami watch to a tsunami warning kids. And by "us" I mean California. 8:08am for San Francisco, not sure about LA.

I am comcernef about GC in Hawaii

I keep hoping someone will hear from/reach him just to confirm he's on higher ground. But the news is saying those sirens will be running all night, so he can hardly miss the message.

Great, now they've expanded the concern area to Australia. Don't know if they're under warning or just watch though.

We actually have an active warning - the Tsumani is expected to hit at 3:35pm today (Saturday) We have told mum to make sure she has plenty of candles and torches and water (there's an irony) just in case. The house is quite high above sea level, but we won't take any chances.

YO! Cricket! Run for high ground!!!!!! Oh, and the island has canceled trash pickup for today.

While it is obviously a parochial interest in the grand scheme of things, here's a thread at MP that has been tracking reports from Tokyo Disneyland.

So far it looks like parking lot damage and many people are spending the night in the park due to transportation disruption.

http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=163958

People are always people....

Thinking of Brad - hope he is OK.

The waves arrived in Hawaii ~15-20 minutes ago. Nothing major. 6-7 feet, expected to not cause much significant damage.

ETA: Oops, I was off by an hour, didn't realize Hawaii doesn't do DST

Read one report this morning that said it'll arrive on the west coast specifically Santa Barbara, around 8:30

They're predicting 1-3 waves up here. I've not heard anything significant at this point and see nothing in the bay, yet.

Some interesting video of the surge hitting Santa Cruz and messing up the harbor a little bit

I've been watching most of the night. The little three foot wave has hit the Oregon coast. If Gary was here he would have packed us up last night to go down to the coast to watch it, yes he is crazy!

It has been so sad watching the utter devastation and to watch the Tsunami live was heartwrenching for me.

One of our employee's family comes from Sendai. No one has been able to contact any of her relatives there. She's not doing well. She came in to work, but I sent her home.

Oh dear. Sorry to hear it

I'm afraid I may not have expressed the proper concern about this when Lani woke me up in the middle of the night to talk about it.

Still waiting to hear that her mom has been able to get all the desired information about relatives in Tokyo.

Crazy? That ain't crazy. Now if he was packing up your surf boards and heading down to the coast.....

My friend, who lives in Fountain Valley was completely freaking out and ready to head to the mountains. Srsly? You're about 4 miles from the water and they're expecting 7ft waves at the most. Sure, it can cause damage at the shoreline. It's not going to come close to your home.

Has anyone heard from Brad? I sent him a text, but he hasn't responded.

When I was in the shower this morning KCBS did a story that included a brief conversation with a woman heading for the hills in Crescent City. She was under the impression that the wave might be up to 50 feet high. The reporter telling her it was more likely to be 2 feet did not phase her.

What I had never really thought about/knew about before was how fast a tsunami can travel over an ocean. It is roughly 5,500 miles (from Japan to LA) and I think it took about 11 hours for the waves to arrive (if my memory is correct). This means the waves traveled at 500 MPH, which is consistent to what I see in a quick web search on the speed of a tsunami.

Wow.

Brad just posted on Facebook, he's fine

The employee came back in. She said that sitting at home by herself, watching the news, was making things worse. She'd rather work and try and get her mind off it. I totally see her point.

Thanks. I can't access FB from work.

Remember, that doesn't mean there was any water traveling at 500MPH. The ENERGY travels that fast, each water molecule transferring the energy to the next without, itself, moving very far at all. Only when the energy wave comes up against something as inconvenient as an island, or a continental shelf, does it then have no where else to go, THEN forcing the water itself to move (at a significantly slower speed).

I get it. I was a wreck after the Christchurch quake until I heard from my family. Not as much news/chatter here about that one though.

That came across wrong, I didn't mean I was fine not being concerned last night but the lack of news this morning indicates I should have been more concerned last night.

Lani hasn't yet spoken to her mom so we'd have no news regardless.

They were independent statements, Lani woke me up in the middle of the night obviously at least a bit upset about it and I pretty much said "oh, ok" and rolled back to sleep. Regardless of whatever news followed that wasn't the correct response.

Ruh roh shaggy....

After numerous "No dangers here" messages regarding the Fukushima nuclear plant, I see this:

Bolding is mine. Let's hope that's the worst of it.

Yes, especially since Japan just had another quake. 6.6 in central Japan. Jeez....

Oh, I know that. But thanks for clarifying.

Still a bit mind boggling though.

I had 2 dog walks this morning at the beach. There were so many people there looking about and not a wave to be seen. I didn't really expect to see anything since our beach faces South and there is a large breakwater, but one never knows. Our house does lie in a "Tsunami inundation zone". We are 5 miles from the ocean but about a mile from the river, hence the "zone". Now, if a 8.9 occurred somewhere off the coast of Oceanside, I'd had to start running.

It will take us a couple of days. I'm less worried about family that I know is in Kyushu and in higher elevations... more worried about family in Tokyo (cousins). Haven't heard anything yet, though I know someone will call once things settle down a bit (if they do).

My grandma will hopefully hear in the next day or so.

*sigh*

Don't know how useful it is but Google does have a system up for people to report and others to find them:

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

That's fascinating, thanks! I hadn't thought of that.

That's okay, Alex. Most of us know you well enough to know that you care. But thanks for clarifying just the same.

Do you have an evacuation plan for you and your brood? It may be worth considering if not.

So much depends on what kind of movement has to take place and how fast. But, the bottom line is that I have a few cats that will hide in the event of a disaster and I won't be able to save them if I have 10 minutes to get out.

I figure we have enough time to get everyone on the roof and ride it out. Maybe I should stash some emergency supplies up there.

VIDEO: This video from Tokyo Disneyland was filmed DURING and AFTER the earthquake. Note how all the guests are calm, quiet and collected the entire time. The video was shot around The Hub at Tokyo Disneyland as guests were waiting for the afternoon parade (called Jubilation!). I can only imagine how some panicked guests at Disneyland Anaheim or Walt Disney World would have reacted unruly instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWEQny9Htx8

AKA "Raccoon Treats"

I'm just horrified by the images being shown, and now they are admitting that a meltdown may be imminent at one of the five reactors they are concerned about. I knew when I saw the numbers last night (8.9) that it was going to be far more catastrophic than the initial reports were indicating. Did anyone see that hellacious whirlpool? :eek:

On another note, it seems Japan has moved, as has the Earth's axis: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/as...rth/index.html

Wow.

No bueno! Besides being completely horrible for Japan how will it impact the rest of the planet? It has to, I just have no idea how.


My friend was in Tokyo and Kyoto the past couple weeks. No one has heard from him. Really hope he's home and being a flake.

Our friend Carl lives in Tokyo. We heard about the quake moments after it happened on Facebook. He's been giving updates regularly and has been posting videos as they get posted on FB. More and more are becoming available from people who were on higher ground. I'll post links as he posts them. The power of a tsunami is utterly amazing.

Here's the first.


And another of the quake from the 22nd floor.

Is seems the quake lasted 4 1/2 minutes.

It won't.

I have a friend leaving for Japan next week. I'm not sure if that's terrible planned-trip timing, or really excellent interesting trip timing.

These before-and-after images are heart-wrenching.

(Grab the blue "handle" and slide the divider back and forth.)

Powerful stuff.

I noticed that there are slight positional differences and was wondering if that is due to the 8' land shift or just normal variations (satellite position, graphic artist variation, etc.)

I find myself wondering what this will mean for the future of nuclear power.

Personally, I think it's a ringing endorsement. While nothing is yet certain, signs right now are pointing to no catastrophic radioactive meltdown. So, in what is arguably as close to worst-case-scenario as you can get for nuclear power, I'd say chalk one up for modern nuclear facility safety. Not such high marks for durability perhaps, but tragic disaster has (thus far) been avoided.

But I suppose not everyone's going to see it that way.

I think the nuclear power industry needs to get their PR people on this right away - Fukushima is older technology, from a design standpoint, and things have only gotten better, right?

GD: In the same vein, I think the quake was a great test for Japanese earthquake-safe building standards. Learning what worked and what didn't, gives us a huge measure of security against our own Big One.

Yup, he was home and being a flake. Jerk.

Erica, has Mima heard anything?

This event has made me not want to be a Japanese farmer

I'm trying to get Chris to chime in about the nuclear issue. He did start his career at SONGS.

The boobs?

Yes, the great concrete titties.

It'll be interesting to see the public reaction, I guess there are already nuclear protesters in Germany, and I don't think the Rhein has ever seen a Tsunami. I'm sure this will be analyzed in depth and more secondary and tertiary levels of safety will be developed and required.

I believe in San Onofre the reactor vessel is located below sea level, so in the event of failures of all the back-up systems, the containment structure could be flooded with sea water to cool the reactor.

So we can all go to the beach and enjoy some poached fish! Yum! ;)

That's better than the alternative, though.....

What's happening in Japan is just awful.

Two excellent articles in the WSJ that cut through all the nuclear hysteria:

One

Two

I don't know. To me, rushing to judgment to say there's nothing to worry about is its own form of hysteria.

At least they didn't blame Obama.

What gets me is the people saying "it could be another Three Mile Island" as if that is a horrible thing. Other than scaring people and rendering a reactor inoperable, TMI didn't really do any damage.

I recall stories of tainted crops and milk production - not sure how that compares to petrochemical disasters.

Well... There really isn't much to worry about. The media just loves to fan the hysteria.

The earthquake and tsunami have killed over 2000 that we know of, and possibly as many as 10,000. The nuclear power plant? None.

I'd agree that the U.S. press pandering to the potential nuclear disaster is the kind of journalism that brings us Charlie Sheen Week and Lindsey Lohan Mania ... but can you understand how even the threat might play particularly hard in, ya know, Japan?

The initial quake has been upgraded to a 9.0

Got final confirmation last night that all aunts and cousins are present and accounted for, even if not a bit hungry due to shortened supplies.

*phew*

Yay!

Would you know of an organization for donations to go out there (other than the Red Cross)?

Not having seen how the Japanese media is handling the situation, I can't comment. I was referring to the coverage I've seen in the US media.

Well, the French national safety authority, ASN, has rated the Japan nuclear reactor danger level at 6 (out of 7 on the international scale). Chernobyl was the only 7. Three Mile Island was a 5.

I don't watch U.S. news, but given this - I don't think serious concerns could be called "overblown."

Neither do I. And don't get me wrong; there are serious concerns. But most of what I see in the media is not serious concern; but overreaction at best and outright hysteria at worst.

A dam burst in Fukushima prefecture, but I don't hear pundits talking about hydropower policy.

That's because it was an irrigation dam (but the point is valid). I'm far more concerned about Oroville Dam in a 6.0 earthquake than I am our various nuclear plants in an 8.5.

Or look one one accident at a single drill site did last year in the Gulf.

This is not to say that what is happening at the Japanese reactor isn't serious. But it can be serious and still be true that the press is over-reacting.

And having a 6 rating on that scale does not mean that it will have any serious impact on anything other than a local scale.

I haven't fact checked this yet, but I just read a comment that every nuclear plant in operation saves the burning of about 2 million tons of coal a year. With 442 operating nuclear plants worldwide that's a total of 884 million tons per year. Just think how much mining, waste, and pollution those nukes prevent.

Plus, we're talking about a 30-year old plant. Newer nuclear plants can be built upon more advanced earthquake-safe building standards.

Actually, the plant survived the earthquake without any damage whatsoever. It was the tsunami that caused the problems - by wiping out the back-up generators for the cooling system.

As overblown as it may be here, I imagine it's pretty darn terrifying in Japan.

If such a thing happened here, how likely would you be to believe the government or the utility companies or even the press as to how dangerous the radioactivity heading your way was??

And how would you like to be trying to get out of Los Angeles if there were even credible RUMORS of radioactive clouds headed this way after being traumatized by unfathomable natural disaster life???







Yes, I imagine this is all pretty upsetting in Japan.

Reasonably likely, except for the press. I never trust the press to ever accurately represent risk.

Per Lani, who is able to watch NHK without help, the Japanese press doesn't seem nearly so overwrought though they are definitely giving it plenty of attention.

I'd believe the utility companies ;)

I've been reading the BBC coverage of the situation. Unlike the American press, it's calm, informative, and fact based. Quite refreshing.

Not to mention the thousands of miners that are killed in coal mining accidents each year.

And the thousands, if not millions, of coal related cancer deaths.

But what about the coal related folk songs? I suppose Big John would translate to the nuke plant context if he's the one who stays behind to absorb all the radiation, but what about "16 tons" and "Working in a coal mine," etc.?

And yet it's hard not to think of calm, informative BBC coverage of an epic disaster as being fodder for a Monty Python skit.

As opposed to the American press who are mostly ignoring the actual death, destruction, and suffering going on in Japan in order to metaphorically flap their arms and run around in circles yelling “Nuclear! Nuclear! We’re all gonna die!”

That's good comedy, too.

Newsflash: Brit and Jap(anese) culture involves a lot of restraint. American culture does not.

While unnecessary sensationalism is not wanted, the Japanese government may be downplaying the dangers a little too much.

I do not claim to have done enough research to postulate on this in detail and provide strong backing, but it was something I heard about on the news on my drive home and a quick Google search has some interesting links.

I am not screaming against nuclear energy, just trying to point out another (possible) angle.

One of the things that bugs me about the US media's coverage is that they are acting like the problems at the Nuclear plant which so far have not killed anyone are far more important or newsworthy than the over 3000 confirmed deaths (with thousands still missing) and massive destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami. The rescue efforts, the plight of the survivors – lack of food, water, electricity, and shelter in freezing temperatures – barely rate a mention. It’s all about sensationalism and how they can frighten the most people into watching or reading them..

I wish I had a stockpile of iodine tablets that I could sell on eBay to all of the hysterical idiots for massive profit.

Lol- my mind immediately went there when I read JW's post.:D

Bids are up to $100 for 14 tablets vs a more normal $40 for 200 tablets.

Yeah, that's a bit of a markup.

Damn! And I've been hoarding Cipro.

I'm banking on a good year for dirty coal

A must watch

Ultimate Loyalty: Japanese Dog Refuses to Leave Injured Friend Behind

I understand both dogs are in rescue, the injured/sick dog is at the vet. Numerous inquiries for adoption.

Watching the video made me cry.

For ONCE the news was not fear mongering about the slight chance of radiation making it over to CA (and the west coast of the US).

Last on the NBC weather Fritz explained the jet stream and how air/currents travel and emphasized there is very minimal risk of anything coming through the air and impacting us.

I also decided that when Chris gets concerned I'll get concerned.

I'm envisioning the next wave of promos with a bunch of mutants slogging through LA saying cheerily to the camera, "Fritz said it would be like this."

Which shows exactly why we had to drop those bombs.

I was just reading that the people who are fleeing Tokyo by plane due to fear of radiation are exposing themselves to more radiation than if they stayed in Tokyo.

Largest increase in background radiation recorded in Tokyo: 1 microsievert per hour
Average increase in background radiation when flying: 5 microsieverts per hour of flight (about the equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour).

Oh the irony...

Well, to be fair I'm guessing those who are leaving aren't leaving because of how bad it is now but how bad they fear it will become, depending on where your fears set that level, taking the increased short term increase of a flight makes perfect sense (even if the underlying estimates are irrational).

That was made of awsome.

Ken's getting numerous people coming into his pharmacy every single day asking for it. I love stupid people. :rolleyes:

I just put extra iodized salt on my food. So now I'll die of hypertension rather than thyroid cancer. At least I can say I did it my way! ;)

My thyroid was already killed off with radiation and I already have cancer. Maybe I should go work at a nuke plant for the week and earn some extra cash.

Informative radiation chart from XKCD:

Radiation Dose Chart