Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (March 11, 2011)

[Solafighter]

Minimum 18.000

[chaos_animagic]

Yup... there's at least 4 towns with 10,000 people that has been complete demolished...
And there's ZERO contact with any of those towns, thus giving us the "assumed death toll"

Especially as one of those town with 10,000 people came up with at least 300 people dead (and increasing)

Not to mention the "small villages" where there's 200-300ish people living in it, all wiped off the face of the planet...

[karinvampire]

Praying for them.

[leon4281isback]

Me too. Seeing disasters brings up more thoughts about this happening to my country. I'm still looking at the mess the earthquakes/tsunami made, it's terrible.

[kujoe]

One town has one-half of its population unaccounted for. That's one-half... I can't imagine what that must feel like. Just thinking about how you won't be seeing the usual folks you come across in your usual day is an eye opener to the reality of it all.

One has to also wonder how this whole disaster will impact the Japanese economy. The road to recovery (and yes, I sincerely believe that they can recover despite all this) won't come cheap.

[Random32]

Originally Posted by chaos_animagic

Yup... there's at least 4 towns with 10,000 people that has been complete demolished...
And there's ZERO contact with any of those towns, thus giving us the "assumed death toll"

Especially as one of those town with 10,000 people came up with at least 300 people dead (and increasing)

Not to mention the "small villages" where there's 200-300ish people living in it, all wiped off the face of the planet...

Thats a bit odd. I would assume that the people that you can't contact should be added to the assumed death toll. If they took that much damage, there will probably be more people dead than there are alive sadly.

[RRW]

just when the nuclear tsunami are about to finished.....

so.. hurricane next?

[Ithekro]

Little out of Typhoon season right now.

[Dist]

^Why is there lightning/thunder in that picture with that eruption ? You can see some flashing in the video too .. ( I know nothing about volcanos )

Seriously though .. There's just no end to the misfortune eh ? First quake, then tsunami, now this and indeed as he asked .. What next ? Not to mention the predicted quakes that are still about to happen and so on ..

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Dist

^Why is there lightning/thunder in that picture with that eruption ? You can see some flashing in the video too .. ( I know nothing about volcanos )

Seriously though .. There's just no end to the misfortune eh ? First quake, then tsunami, now this and indeed as he asked .. What next ? Not to mention the predicted quakes that are still about to happen and so on ..

Lightning generated by friction, severe ionic differentials, heated dust mechanics (see granary explosions), the usual. Kind of demonstrates why ancient people feared and tried to appease/worship volcanoes.

http://geology.com/articles/volcanic-lightning/

How lightning forms in general is still debated among scientists, and volcanic lightning is even less well understood. What is mostly agreed upon is that the process starts when particles separate, either after a collision or when a larger particle breaks in two. Then some difference in the aerodynamics of these particles causes the positively charged particles to be systematically separated from the negatively charged particles. Lightning is the electrical flow that results when this charge separation becomes too great for air to resist the flow of electricity. Some of the lighting strokes in these photos are at least 2 miles long, so the separation of charged particles must occur on this scale.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Dist

^Why is there lightning/thunder in that picture with that eruption ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...an-erupts.html

And Shinmoedake has been doing stuff all year, so it's not clear if this is related.

The volcano last erupted Jan. 19 after remaining dormant for two years. Volcanologists had warned that a "lava dome" was growing inside the volcano's crater, although it was uncertain when or if the volcano would erupt.

[achirist]

Together, the worlds 441 functioning nuclear plants annually produce almost 13,000 tons of high-level nuclear scrap with nowhere to go; many of the holding sites are faulty and already showing leaks; they, certainly can and will be ruptured by an earthquake. It isn't the least bit clean; it is very dangerous, and in our world that is becoming increasingly dangerous due to climate change, it's becoming more and more risky. Some people don't want to risk their lives for a poisonous technology that produces carbon when they can use solar, wind, geothermal, or tidal power. Condescending to people who have been poisoned by nuclear radiation because you want more plants built is a sick way to respond to a disaster.

“…Used nuclear fuel, some of it decades old, languishes in holding tanks. Oddly, it is up to a million times more radioactive than when it was fresh. While in the reactor, it began mutating into elements heavier than enriched uranium, such as isotopes of plutonium and americium. That process continues in the waste dumps, where used hot rods exchange neutrons and expel alpha and beta particles, gamma rays, and heat.” - Alan Weisman, The World Without Us.

[chaos_animagic]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Little out of Typhoon season right now.

Unless suddenly Mother Nature felt like we don't have enough chaos yet...

BAM, Hurricane and Tornados... with a sprinkle of Thunder and Blizzard Storms....

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by achirist

Together, the worlds 441 functioning nuclear plants annually produce almost 13,000 tons of high-level nuclear scrap with nowhere to go; many of the holding sites are faulty and already showing leaks; they, certainly can and will be ruptured by an earthquake. It isn't the least bit clean; it is very dangerous, and in our world that is becoming increasingly dangerous due to climate change, it's becoming more and more risky. Some people don't want to risk their lives for a poisonous technology that produces carbon when they can use solar, wind, geothermal, or tidal power. Condescending to people who have been poisoned by nuclear radiation because you want more plants built is a sick way to respond to a disaster.

The "garbage problem" is the one gorilla-in-the-room issue and its a show stopper. Hell, we were arguing about it back in the 70s when I was in engineering school.
At best, fission power is a "temporary solution" until other solutions are in place - perhaps 30 or 40 years. The danger, of course, is that the implementers of the technology want to extract maximum profit out of it in the sociopathic way corporations tend to operate without oversight. That means running them long past the Good Idea point and perhaps they even try stifling other technologies to keep the status quo.

[Solace]

We have the ability and the technology to shift away from fossil fuels and nuclear power to better alternatives. We also have the ability to make those old sources much more efficient. We don't, simply because of the effort required and the interests of those who profit the most from how things are. It's a shame really.

That said, I'm not sure this is the thread to be debating such topics.

[RRW]

gizmodo have nice picture to share

http://gizmodo.com/#!5781500/japan-q...upts/gallery/1

Spoiler for pic:

a strong after quake of 6.1 struck 140km from Tokyo offshore

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by achirist

Together, the worlds 441 functioning nuclear plants annually produce almost 13,000 tons of high-level nuclear scrap with nowhere to go; many of the holding sites are faulty and already showing leaks; they, certainly can and will be ruptured by an earthquake. It isn't the least bit clean; it is very dangerous, and in our world that is becoming increasingly dangerous due to climate change, it's becoming more and more risky. Some people don't want to risk their lives for a poisonous technology that produces carbon when they can use solar, wind, geothermal, or tidal power. Condescending to people who have been poisoned by nuclear radiation because you want more plants built is a sick way to respond to a disaster.

Originally Posted by Vexx

The "garbage problem" is the one gorilla-in-the-room issue and its a show stopper. Hell, we were arguing about it back in the 70s when I was in engineering school.
At best, fission power is a "temporary solution" until other solutions are in place - perhaps 30 or 40 years. The danger, of course, is that the implementers of the technology want to extract maximum profit out of it in the sociopathic way corporations tend to operate without oversight. That means running them long past the Good Idea point and perhaps they even try stifling other technologies to keep the status quo.

Please take this debate to another thread if you wish debate further since it has nothing to do with the immediate event here in Japan.
Any debate concerning the Fukushima nuclear power plant is welcome since it has relevance but to keep a balance of discussion I would also point out the fact that the entire Kanto area is going through a rolling black out because the output cannot meet demand and Tokyo Electric Company is announcing that it may last till end of April.
Japan's electric out put is balanced with 1/4 to hydo, fossil(coal), fossil(diesel), and nuclear so don't patronize what is right and/or wrong.

News

There is a news break that a Tsunami of 5M is expected to hit Ominato-shi, Iwate.

[RRW]

Roughly 1000 bodies found on the beaches of the north eastern miagi area

[Alchemist007]

Damn, when are the aftershocks going to subside? And it looks like they're not pushovers either, 7.0 and all...is anything like that 8.9 likely to happen?

[Ithekro]

Took about a week after the Earthquake in 1989 (California) for the aftershocks to die down.