HUGE earthquake and tsunami hit Japan...

[ungeheuer]

waves moving 500-600 mph.  

3-4 Nuc plants affected but all shut down.  2000 people being evacuated.  Supposedly, no radiation leak but what if it didn't shut down?  Another Chernobyl..just on a larger scale??

1) Japan's expertise in earthquake/tsunami mitigation is second to none.
2) Japan's nuclear facilities are constructed and managed with reference to 1).  
3)The Soviet's nuclear power facilities were constructed and managed with reference to vodka and getting away early for a weekend at the Dacha.

>>  residents near nuclear plant evacuate  <<

[dolci]

They are expecting waves to start hitting any time now. 

[ungeheuer]

I dont think you need worry too much about the waves arriving on your shores >>  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/11/3162045.htm

[derby]

I'm staring to freak out, I only live 12 miles from the beach.

i live ~1000ft from the beach and i'm not really concerned.

[Monster Dave]

Holy CRAP!! CNN has a wild video on their home page of this inundating wave with things on fire just sweeping over the land.


Be safe everyone - take no chances - get to high ground and be smart!

[ungeheuer]

Holy CRAP!! CNN has a wild video on their home page of this inundating wave with things on fire just sweeping over the land.

... in Japan. 

Pretty sure west coast USA is in no real danger.

[lethe]

Can only hope for that!!

Crescent City, CA is supposed to get the worst of the waves later this morning.  CA is supposed to get 2-3' rise at beaches around 10am

Nothing to worry about this time Lethe.  You're East coast, right.

**Oh sh*t..I thought you posted being 12 miles away Lethe.  That was Duc750.  You in Hawaii D?

I'm 100 miles inland and at 1300 ft elevation, if there is ever a tsunami I have to worry about reaching my house, we have bigger issues.

[derby]

pics:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42024158/ns/news-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1

[DanTheMan]

I'm living in the Philippines and we were put on Tsunami warning, but only got 30-70cm waves. Tides are bigger. If we were to be hit by 10m's it would probably wipe my island clean.

[Monster Dave]

Anyone from Sydney on here? I've got a buddy who lives there and haven't been able to get in touch with him. How are things down under?


Check out this whirlpool:



Video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/vo.whirlpool.earthquake.nhk?hpt=C2

[He Man]

NUTS! I just woke up to this on my RSS Feeds. Hope everything is okay over there. From what things seem like so far, it could of been much worst.

[Monster Dave]

That all depends on how you define "not that many" so far 300-400 bodies have been found and many are still unaccounted for....








Every time I hear about big earthquakes happening, I'm reminded that here in US, Yosemite (a "super volcano") is about 30,000 years over due for an eruption...

[Triple J]

Considering it was an 8.9, which is massive, damage from the actual earthquake doesn't look all that bad. Most of the damage looks to be caused by the Tsunamai. The 1995 Kobe EQ pictures looked worse...at least at this point.

Magnitude isn't everything though. The recent NZ EQ was only a 6.3...which isn't all that large really. However, it was only 5km deep so the shaking was very intense. This Japan EQ was 24.4km deep, which definitely helped damp the shaking.

They're still getting hammered by mid 5 magnitude aftershocks.
.http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

[Monster Dave]

Considering it was an 8.9, which is massive, damage from the actual earthquake doesn't look all that bad. Most of the damage looks to be caused by the Tsunamai. The 1995 Kobe EQ pictures looked worse...at least at this point.

Magnitude isn't everything though. The recent NZ EQ was only a 6.3...which isn't all that large really. However, it was only 5km deep so the shaking was very intense. This Japan EQ was 24.4km deep, which definitely helped damp the shaking.

They're still getting hammered by mid 5 magnitude aftershocks.
.http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

The effects are very different. As a result of the 1995 EQ and the NZ EQ that you mentioned having an epicenters on the main land, the impact on local structures was more severe. The event that we're seeing here occurred deep beneath the ocean floor.

[Triple J]

The effects are very different. As a result of the 1995 EQ and the NZ EQ that you mentioned having an epicenters on the main land, the impact on local structures was more severe. The event that we're seeing here occurred deep beneath the ocean floor.

That's essentially the same thing I said. Distance the energy has to travel through the ground is everything.

The exact location of the rupture which also takes into account depth (termed the hypocenter) is what's really important. The epicenter, which is just a surface expression of the hypocenter, can be misleading. It's good for the news to explain location to people, but the hypocenter location is what really matters. If the NZ EQ would have had the same epicenter but been 20km deep it would have been much less devastating.

Soils also play a huge part. Kobe was on a lot of loose fill which magnified shaking. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a couple hundred miles from Mexico City, but the city was still devstated due to the soils beneath it (and the poor building codes).