There have only ever been 4 recorded higher than 8.9 since I guess they had the ability to measure going back to the mid 1700. 3 of these were in fairly remote areas but one was in Indonesia recently. I doubt indonesia has the population density of Japan.

The deadliest earthquake was in a populated area of China. It was only an 8.0 . You got to figure that one 10 times stronger in a densely populated area like japan is going to affect a lot of people. Hopefully the better infrastructure of Japan vs China will mean more rescued , less diseases after , etc. Luckily , this one's center was a long way off the coast not on the land but the down side of that is that being in the water , it caused the tsunami.

The 8 foot shift is the type of thing they are worried about as the moon sweeps by so close during the coming 2 weeks. They liken it to a high tide but it will be the land rising and falling as well as the oceans of course. Lots of earthquakes are do to a pinned area of the faults letting go. There is a tremendous amount of energy stored when a strong pin locks in the land masses that are trying to slide across one another. the huge shifts expected do to the added moon pull can cause these pinned faults to unlock and slide a lot all at once.

lets hope there are no more as big as this one in Japan.

They say New England is not immune. We haven't had a bad earthquake in a long time but some say its do to a strong pin and that when or if it lets go , we could experience a really big one. Of course the most famous one talked about in the USA is the San Andreas fault in california that people say will "cause part of Caifornia to fall into the pacific ocean." Events like this one in japan make it seem a lot more feasible than just what is mentioned in Sci Fi movies.

OMG I just watched a show that was on the ground at the sites of some of the worst struck areas and the devastation is unbelievable. Those towns that were in valleys which a lot of them were are just wiped off the face of the map.

It was worse than the South East Asia tsunami. It makes me happy we live on sand, and other glacial till.

U know what is the scariest part. They are the most prepared country for this type of natural disaster in the world and they got their lunch handed to them. This happening off the west coast would be many times worse. Scary stuff.

You can't really be prepared for such disaster.....you can think you are.....but you can't foresee to what degree such devastation an 8.9 mag earthquake or a 30 foot wall of water is going to bring. What I have not heard anyone say is.......how long after the quake did the Tsunami come ashore?? Did they have any warning at all??? 10 minutes?? 30 Minutes???

PS....define "prepared"?

they had 15 minutes warning.

Amazing all the news stations I watched and not one of them reported that incredibly important detail???? Thanks Nebe! Man thats not alot of time at all!!! Especially if you were on a boat??

i have heard it on the news a few times. They said that they had 15 minutes of warning for the tsunami... but i think..... and this is just my hunch...that they felt the earth quake first... then the tsunami alarms went off and it it took 15 minutes for it to hit.

I never heard it mentioned 1 time.....which I found amazing.

my point exactly you can't be prepared for such devastation and the same situation elsewhere would probably result in even worse results. They plan for this and have exercise's on what to do when it happens and what to do after. Imagine how a place that has no plan would fair. 10 to 15 minutes I heard. Roads were clogged in some towns as they tried to flee and people on trains that are missing, 4 trains completely vanished,, never knew it was coming probably. The situation is the worst ever so the end result is going to be worst case I'd say. Nuclear plants were built to withstand an earthquake 5 times less than what they got so they screwed up big time there. I heard the ground was shaking so violently that you had to crawl as standing up was impossible.

Can you imagine what kind of meetings are going on at US nuclear plants and agencies? Going to be some massive new regulations coming out of this. Japanese will probably move future plants inland, away from coast and imminent tsunami threat. But they will still need a source of water. I believe they are on the coast to utilize the seawater to cool the cooling (fresh) water circulated in the reactors. The country has massive debt, even before this diaster. Yes, even more than the US, by a lot. Contingency plan for something like this could never have been considered. Heck, what have we done in light of Katrina? But if any of the three crippled plants' reactors meltdown........it's just going to be bad, real bad.

Big difference between what is happening in Japan and say, Chernobyl.

Actual failure of the reactor core is unlikely:

You should read this: https://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2...lear-reactors/

I don't think we are getting enough info to really know, John. Just had a blast at Reactor #3. Hydrogen explosion that blew out the concrete exterior. And the experts say this is actually a good thing as it relieves the building pressure. It tells me that it is out of control....
Also a new tsunami warning just put up for 3 meter waves.....

damn... YouTube - New dramatic video: Tsunami wave spills over seawall, smashes boats, cars

It changed time in the world.

Earth's day length shortened by Japan earthquake - CBS News

I told my 16 yo last night as we watched videos and pictures that this is probably the largest disaster to strike in my entire life and quite possibly his and it's going to get alot worse before it gets better. Radiation clouds can easily cross the Pacific...

I'm betting at the minimum there will be another VERY large quake somewhere on the other side of the ring of fire within the next few months...



I have a question that I haven't been able to answer.... Maybe Mr Oakley can chip in with some professor geoisms...

If there was a mile wide whirlpool that was s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g down sea water....where does the water go..does it stay underground now forever and does the ocean level now drop because of the water? Or does it maintain the level of ocean height and filter back into the environment?

Ross, read the link I posted. I'm no nuke but some of the nukes I've been following recommend that article as a pretty good primmer on whats happening.

Short version, none of the cores is going to go critical, they are all slowly cooling down. The 2 with the major issues now are being cooled with far from pure saltwater. The heat in the reactor, well short of creating fission and cooling, is still enough to separate the H2O into hydrogen and oxygen. When that is vented to the atmo/outer containment building (not pressure containment) that is what is exploding. The cores are still cooling down but are taking longer due to the tsunami and quake wiping out primary, secondary, and tertiary cooling systems.

Here's a GREAT article I just read that is very informative. Good read.

After the tsunami, the nuclear threat: Radiation fear as two more N-plants are hit by failures | Mail Online

Cascadia @ western USA may be next
as when one goes (faults) the others tend to follow

Heard a report/prediction that if you visualize the Pacific plate as having 4 corners, all 4 corners historically seem to have a "correction" in concert. So far 3 of the 4 corners have had events recently: Chile, NZ, Japan. The 4th corner is what Raven states.

it has happened at close to 200 year intervals and they are over 300
years now since the last correction.

:rotf2::rotf2::rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:



I can totally hear Godzilla!!!

As we all know its only a matter of time before it happens here. I remember seeing something on landslides coming from Africa? Mentioned if it happened the sea surge would reach 5 miles in in the Boston area. There is a piece on this link from the Canary Islands, interesting read

Atlantic Ocean Tsunami Threat from Earthquakes, Landslides

It actually displaces the water, which generates the energy for the tsunami. If you imaging the length of the fault, x the displacement (8ft) all of the displaced water does not go into the crust.

it is a subduction zone, and water circulates down into the earth (crust and mantle) as the ocean floor is subducted under Japan, but it is mostly in the pore spaces of the sediment on the ocean floor and in the cracks in the underlying rocks..

but.. caveat.. I'm a glacial/coastal guy.. not a seismologist!

now that it's basically Over
 

what are they gonna do with this enormous amount of debris?

i mean they are an ISLAND and allot of the material was imported
over many years so that means huge Barges and euks trucks hauling it where
to the ocean? China wont touch it now that it's radio active. :huh:

Burn it is my guess
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

"China wont touch it now that it's radio active."

R u kidding me?

They'll eat this stuff up. It'll be in your kids toys next year.

tnx Brian didn't understand how that worked.

So is the speed of the tsunami, english meaning is death wave, like a wave going thr speed of sound minus the friction caused by the water itself.

Scarie stuff this. 8 ft #^&#^&#^&#^& of that much land is gonna cause a problem someplace else on this marble we live on. Take a frisbee and put a piece of gum under the lip and throw it. Wobbles like a drunken top. We learned about that in college. Where is the gum gonna cause the next peoblems. that's only a few trillion billion tons of land that moves 8 ft over.

Watch this video. Never seen anything like this in my life. Water pulsating out of the ground.

Gotta Watch: iReporters capture scope of quake – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

The dome blew off a second reactor today. Explosion shot it 1000 feet into the air. It is unreal..That will likely lead to melt down at least in part as the fuel is still there and can't be flooded.

With no nuke power, that area will be without power for a long long time. It takes a good 10-15 years to build a plant to today's standards. That is once the actually get a license to build one. (add another 10 years)....
Those boiling water reactors are vintage (like Vermont Yankee). So there is no going back. They will be in a world of hurt for 20-30 years.

My company is looking for nuclear engineers (volunteers) in our group to go and work there. I don't think anyone is going to sign up.
I know I'm not.

Booger:
this should help clarify

http://www.iris.edu/hq/files/program..._IslandArc.mov

Go into Google Earth, go to the big Earthquake icon off Sendai, and download the KMZ for the before / after satellite images. Damage is unreal.

Don't forget the 67 Alaskan earthquake.

I read it, John. Just not a believer. Another explosion just now in #2. Rods are exposed. I think a breach is possible, and that is, IMO, critical. No infrastructure to get whatever materials they need to fight this into place. I think they're screwed as far as keeping that plant under control. As I said, we are not getting the real story in realtime.

NPR reported this morning no gas for firetrucks

Not that the firetrucks can drive anywhere due to the debris everywhere!

Pumpin water can't do it without fuel

I understand, but it is not a Chernobyl-case type incident. It really sucks and it will really suck even more with the potential to greatly suck. But it is not Chernobyl. There is also a lot of significantly bad info out there...