Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (March 11, 2011)

[Tri-ring]

Another earthquake shook the coastal shore of Fukushima at 22:16.
The magnitude is 6.0 with shindo level 5.

[Kaze]

I just wanted to say:


I am utterly DISGUSTED by these people that are actually saying this is payback for Pearl harbor:

http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/.../794541220.jpg


People as ignorant as that should experience it themselves.

[JMvS]

Glad to know my cousin living in Tokyo is fine.

Otherwise, I deeply regret no longer being a student, as we would now be describing and discussing the details of the earthquake tectonic context, along with doing some serious risk analysis.

For what I understand, from the schematics presented in the NHK-TV live stream, the quake destabilized the whole accretion wedge of the Pacific/Northern Honshu plate. Meaning more quake are occuring in the whole Northern Honshu until the entire system is stabilized.

According to what I've gleaned, the quake likely involved a flat lying fault, which, like in the SE Asia tsunami, cut trough the whole accretion wedge, destabilizing it all. And in this context, not only can we expect more fault readjustments, but also undersea landslides, which can also trigger more tsunamis.

Some geologists are also concerned about possible volcano activity, but I won't comment on this, since I'm not too familiar with the state of activity regarding the area's volcanoes. (NB: the one that erupted last month, the James Bond one, is in Kyushu, so not directly connected).

[RRW]

Originally Posted by Kaze

I just wanted to say:


I am utterly DISGUSTED by these people:

http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/.../794541220.jpg

just ignore those. many hatred from korea and USA i found

i will be off for moment

edit
in case people want to know how many quake already go here

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...quakes_all.php

(usually above 5-6 where it start noticeable)

[JMvS]

The USGS page on the event is resource rich for those who'd want more technical details on the quake, and aftershocks prospects:

Spoiler for Tectonic summary and History:

The 03/11/2011 earthquake (preliminary magnitude 8.9) near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, occurred as a result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Pacific plate moves approximately westwards with respect to the North America plate at a velocity of 83 mm/yr. The Pacific plate thrusts underneath Japan at the Japan Trench, and dips to the west beneath Eurasia. The location, depth, and focal mechanism of the March 11 earthquake are consistent with the event having occurred as thrust faulting associated with subduction along this plate boundary. Note that some authors divide this region into several microplates that together define the relative motions between the larger Pacific, North America and Eurasia plates; these include the Okhotsk and Amur microplates that are respectively part of North America and Eurasia.

The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day.

The Japan Trench subduction zone has hosted 9 events of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973. The largest of these was an M 7.8 earthquake approximately 260 km to the north of the March 11 event, in December 1994, which caused 3 fatalities and almost 700 injuries. In June of 1978, an M 7.7 earthquake 35 km to the southwest caused 22 fatalities and over 400 injuries.

Until now, there has been 154 aftershocks.

See also their alert page, to get a scope of the area concerned with what degree of hazard, and the probabilities of human and economic loss.

[-KarumA-]

The news now adds that 3 people were confirmedly exposed to radiation, when the explosion happened and they were outside. No increase in tsunami warning after the shock. Seemingly 10000 people are missing in miyagi (?) they say on NHK

edit: these people were not so seriously exposed as thought, they can wash it off

[Amuroray]

Another after shock

[Father Hentai]

Here are the latest German feeds:

15:09 Uhr Angesichts einer drohenden Kernschmelze im Krisengebiet hat Bundesaußenminister Guido Westerwelle alle Deutschen aufgefordert, die Großregion rund um das japanische Atomkraftwerk Fukushima sofort zu verlassen. "Wir raten von nicht erforderlichen Reisen nach Japan ab", sagte Westerwelle. Am Abend werden der Außenminister, Kanzlerin Angela Merkel und Umweltminister Norbert Röttgen (CDU) die Lage gemeinsam erörtern. "Wir haben bisher kein klares Lagebild", betonte Westerwelle in einer Pressekonferenz.

15:04 Uhr Einen Tag nach der Naturkatastrophe in Japan ist die internationale Hilfe für das Land angelaufen. Die USA entsenden 140 Katastrophenhelfer, in Russland bereiten sich 200 Rettungskräfte, Mediziner und Psychologen auf den Einsatz vor. Aus Grossbritannien kommen 60 Spezialisten. Das THW schickt ein Team mit 38 Leuten nach Japan, erste deutsche Helfer sind bereits vor Ort.

Source: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/...werk-1.1071111

Rough translated:
15:09: German Secretary of State advises Germans near Fukushima to avoid the region due to the risks of a reactive meltdown. As well as he advises to cancel flights to Japan. In the Evening the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her enviroment minister will give a briefing about the current situation in Japan.

15:04. International support is on its way. US. dispatches about 140 specialists, Russia 200, GB 60, Germany about 38.

Originally Posted by rrw

just ignore those. many hatred from korea and USA i found

i will be off for moment

edit
in case people want to know how many quake already go here

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...quakes_all.php
(usually above 5-6 where it start noticeable)

Ignore those idiots. As you can see the governments are without grief what has happened in the past. Support is on its way.

[Kaijin]

Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet; shifted Earth's axis
see: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T1

[j0x]

Originally Posted by Kaze

I just wanted to say:


I am utterly DISGUSTED by these people that are actually saying this is payback for Pearl harbor:

http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/.../794541220.jpg


People as ignorant as that should experience it themselves.

do not mind them they are just living in the past and not hoping for the future,
hate will easily escalate to wars so they are just ignorant people as you say

[JC...]

I don't understand twenty or so year olds that post things like that, they weren't even alive then, it'd barely affect them, so why are they using it as a device for arguments and un-sympathy?

It makes me go looolllll wuuuuuuuttt.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by JC...

I don't understand twenty or so year olds that post things like that, they weren't even alive then, it'd barely affect them, so why are they using it as a device for arguments and un-sympathy?

Why ?
1 They are idiots.
2 They don't know much about history.
3 They are searching something to say.

[Zetsubo]

Originally Posted by Kaze

I just wanted to say:


I am utterly DISGUSTED by these people that are actually saying this is payback for Pearl harbor:

http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/.../794541220.jpg


People as ignorant as that should experience it themselves.

Ignore them.

That is the best thing to do.

[JC...]

It makes me lose hope in humanity....

[solomon]

At Mainichi Broadcasting site,

they say that 3 people are at Fukushima hospital requiring decamination.

[MeoTwister5]

Here's the ICRC website setting up the listing for missing people in the Japan area.

If anyone here has people they need to contact but haven't through the usual channels, send the necessary information over to the ICRC and they'll keep the info posted on their missions across Japan and on other public information areas.

[haegar]

Since somebody actually already quoted german feed I'll add some, I'm unsure what this can mean or not and don't wanna panic, but I find things to be very weird with our news and politicians in comparison to jap news /gov:

I dunno what is goin on here, EITHER both our german media and high ranking government officials are misinformed and making fools out of themselves - OR they are NOT , in which case the japanese government is downplaying things and outright lying about a meltdown taking place:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,750472,00.html

as reported by spiegel.de, our Minister of Environment and Nuclear Safety has openly contradicted the official japanese government position:

+++ Röttgen geht von Kernschmelze aus +++

[14.35 Uhr] Umweltminister Röttgen vermutet, dass es in Fukushima zu einer Kernschmelze gekommen ist. "Anhand der uns vorliegenden Informationen neigen wir dazu, dass dort eine Kernschmelze im Gange ist", sagte Röttgen dem WDR. Die japanische Regierung weist Berichte über eine Kernschmelze zurück: Bei der Explosion in Fukushima sei nur der Betonmantel, jedoch nicht die Stahlhülle um den Reaktor beschädigt worden, so die offizielle Ansage.

my on the fly translation of news: 14.35 (local time germany, aprox 50mins ago) Minister Röttgen suspects that it has come to a meltdown in Fukushima. "According to information available to us, we lean towards/tend to believe a meltdown is taking place there" told Röttgen [the german TV news] WDR. Japanese government is meanwhile dementing News of a meltdown having occured. Alledgedly only the concrete casing, but not the steal enclosure of the reavctor core were damaged by the explosion.

I consider this a highly unusual occurence in international politics. One does not go out and contradict another friendly countries position like that - either he's going nuts or he has good reason to do so. There are reportedly about 120 german citizens living in the general vicinity of Fukushima if I got that right. There is a chance Japanese Gov is downplaying serious event and he refuses to go with it because he feels he has to put up for those german folks there.

In accordance with such a reading/interpretation of this statement, there is another entry reported on same site:

[14.59 Uhr] Außenminister Westerwelle warnt Deutsche, die sich in Japan aufhalten: "Eine Ausreise mit kommerziellen Mitteln sollte in Erwägung gezogen werden, insbesondere mit Kindern", sagte Westerwelle, der wegen der Ereignisse in Asien seine Ungarn-Reise abbrach.

trans: Foreign Minister Westerwelle warns Germans residing in japan: "A departure (TN: from japan) via commercial means should be considered, especially (TN: by citizens) with children." said Westerwelle, who prematurely ended his trip to Hungary due to events in Japan.


While neither of these statements include a totally CLEAR resentment of the offical japanese position I consider them to be ... well highly unusual and weird ... to say the least. Maybe somebody else following events from Germany could comment... either our folks are kinda loosing it, or they apparently have the balls to begin pointing out that things are not as the appear I am very confused

[Green²]

http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...00680620110312

""We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside," he said."

"Edano said due to the falling level of cooling water, hydrogen was generated and that leaked to the space between the building and the container and the explosion happened when the hydrogen mixed with oxygen there."


There is bullshit in there somewhere between the two highlighted above quotes. Which do you think is is?

[Patriot's Blade]

hey guys, i found this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

[Zetsubo]

Originally Posted by Green²

http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...00680620110312

""We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside," he said."

"Edano said due to the falling level of cooling water, hydrogen was generated and that leaked to the space between the building and the container and the explosion happened when the hydrogen mixed with oxygen there."


There is bullshit in there somewhere between the two highlighted above quotes. Which do you think is is?

Hydrogen can explode when mixed with air, since hydrogen + air has a low ignition energy requirements. Worse if their is a pure oxygen source.

When you break down water of course you produce the two gases... which again aggravates the problem.

For battery houses they train us to be wary of hydrogen collecting under the battery house roof... which causes an explosion hazard.

The reactor outer building is pretty much similar to a battery house.