Leave your Godzilla jokes at the door; Japan hit by 8.9 Earthquake and Tsunami.

[JoshYEAH]

For those wanting to keep up to date with current happenings I recommend the following streams;

NHK Streams: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
BBC Live: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10318089
Al Jezeera English: http://english.aljazeera.net/

Just the facts:

# 8.9 magnitude earthquake hits the north-east of Japan triggering a tsunami that has caused extensive damage
# Waves as high as 10m (33ft) strike Japanese coastal towns, with numerous casualties feared
# A tsunami warning covers Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, the Pacific coast of Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and also Central and South America

The Earthquake hit at 2:34 PM JST (at the time of this post it is just after midnight there) and the Tsunami followed soon thereafter; the biggest devastation is in Sendai in norther Japan. The epicentre of the quake was approx. 200 miles off the Northeastern Coast.

There has been reports of issues surroudning coolant failure at a Nuclear Power Plant; I want to lay down the law on this here and now and say that there is MINIMAL risk of a Meltdown, and anything at the moment is purely Media Sensationalising, don't worry too much about this.

You can also follow BBC Coverage on Twitter; http://twitter.com/#!/bbcbreaking

#
1504: The BBC News website has now published a special report on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

 

[Dunsparce4prez]

Thanks, I'll check out the BBC. CNN is disappointing me. I had the news on early this morning when it hit, these images are horrifying. We live in Kentucky and this morning I had the news on as my kids got ready for school. They saw the video of the water, debris, and burning buildings pouring over that farmland. They actually got worried and asked if it was coming here.

 

[blaze boy]

I heard about this when I got home. I hope that the People of Japan are OK. Just wish that I could do something to help them.

 

[JoshYEAH]

There's an incredible amount of fire spreading across the Sendai region at this point;

[img139]http://i.imgur.com/sMgsI.png[/img139]

This is probably the most shocking thing I've seen thus far. It's likely that the fire has been started by gas lines and abandoned cars and othe rvehicles with oil still in the tanks. That the fire is as big as it is and moving as fast as it is suggests oil fire.

 

[Aquanova]

This is simply dreadful. Thats a huge quake. Its almost as big as the on that happened in the Indian Ocean in 2004, which was equally as dreadful. I really hope the Japanese people and all other affected people will be ok.

 

[desi darling]

I posted this in the general news thread but still: If anyone from Japan and the Pacific area is reading, everyone in the U.S. is sending their hearts and prayers out to you. It's all we're talking about. Our government has pledged to do anything possible to help.

We still don't know if our west coast will be badly affected... watching these images of highways and farms being overtaken with water is so painful.

I've spoken to and traded with so many Japanese through Pokemon and it's insane to think that that nice kid I voice chatted with from Yamada might be injured or killed in the fires from the quake.


I'm just wishing the best for them.


EDIT: Just some added info I'm hearing from the news:

Seismologists say Japan only had about 15 minutes warning of the quake.

300 are dead and hundreds more injured or missing.

More than 30 aftershocks rated 5.6, making them earthquakes on their own pretty much.

 

[-beautifly-]

I feel so bad for the people affected by the Quake/Tsunami. Really wish I could help.

 

[ShinySandshrew]

I posted this in the general news thread but still: If anyone from Japan and the Pacific area is reading, everyone in the U.S. is sending their hearts and prayers out to you. It's all we're talking about. Our government has pledged to do anything possible to help.

We still don't know if our west coast will be badly affected... watching these images of highways and farms being overtaken with water is so painful.

I've spoken to and traded with so many Japanese through Pokemon and it's insane to think that that nice kid I voice chatted with from Yamada might be injured or killed in the fires from the quake.


I'm just wishing the best for them.

Agreed. My heart and prayers go out to those who have been/will be affected by the earthquake/tsunami.

 

[Chris]

What's horrible is how Godzilla was trending on Twitter and how people are comparing this disaster with Hurricane Katrina. Good lord.

This whole disaster is like that of a nightmare.

 

[-beautifly-]

What's horrible is how Godzilla was trending on Twitter and how people are comparing this disaster with Hurricane Katrina. Good lord.

This whole disaster is like that of a nightmare.

I was affected by Hurricane Katrina, although I didn't live in New Orleans and where I live wasn't hit as badly, it still took a long time to deal with the damage.
Now I know Katrina is probably nothing compared to what just happened to Japan and it just makes me sad to think of how long it's going to take for Japan to recover

 

[Chris]

I was affected by Hurricane Katrina, although I didn't live in New Orleans and where I live wasn't hit as badly, it still took a long time to deal with the damage.

Without getting too into the matter, that was primarily due to the government basically taking forever to respond, rather than the actual damage. Even then, you have plenty of warning for hurricanes.

With Japan's earthquake, you've got zero warnings ahead of time for earthquakes. Japan's was the 6th strongest in to be recorded and triggered a tsunami that not only affected Japan but in several areas around them. To make matter worse, two shockwaves of 5.1 have occurred.

 

[PokemonHero]

BBC and Al Jazeera both have some pretty good coverage of what's going on. It appears the first waves are reaching the West Coast of the US right now.

My thoughts are with the people in Japan who were affected by the disaster.

Without getting too into the matter, that was primarily due to the government basically taking forever to respond, rather than the actual damage. Even then, you have plenty of warning for hurricanes.

With Japan's earthquake, you've got zero warnings ahead of time for earthquakes. Japan's was the 6th strongest in to be recorded and triggered a tsunami that not only affected Japan but in several areas around them. To make matter worse, two shockwaves of 5.1 have occurred.

From what I saw, Japan had maybe 15 minutes of warning before the tsunami struck. Basically, no chance of escape.

 

[Mysty]

Geology major here.

I'm just creeped out because I'm in. Hazards class right now and Wednesday we talked about this type of event in depth. Including the teacher (who has dived on Alvin into this very zone) talking about really cheesy Japanese quake education videos.

This is a subduction zone quake. I'll type more when I get on my actual computer, but basically these zones are the areas capable of the biggest quakes.

There is a zone, called the Cascadia Subduction zone off the coast of Oregon, Washington, and parts of Canada.

Anyways, the subduction zone is an area where oceanic crust is subducted back into the asthenosphere.

Japan is of the oceanic-crust to oceanic crust type of subduction.

Okay, I'll shut up with the scientific junk. I get carried away by geology as geophysics and seismology are my intended fields.

 

[RageKaiser]

I honestly am like still in shock over this, it's terrible that this happened and I hope that the death toll stays low. I've heard people talking about how it's signs of 2012. I just..idk :/ *sigh*

 

[Mysty]

Also, some areas of coastal California, Oregon, whatnot are being evacuated.

I'm in San Luis Obispo county and places like Avila beach, oceano, and motto bay are being evacuated. (no evacuations I've heard of in Cambria and Los Osos though...

 

[Korusan]

I'll be honest; when I woke up this morning I heard rumblings about it but until now I didn't fully understand the gravity of the situation. It's bloody awful what's going on right now. I'm in Canada and I've heard people talk about feeling very minute traces of aftershock. Probably just psychological for them but if even if it's causing people around me to lose their mind like that it's scary as all hell. Or I'm just surrounded by overreacting morons.

At any rate I'm gonna keep an eye on this since I have the day off and it's a good chance to actually use Twitter for something other than bragging about video games or posting music or something stupid like that. George Takei's got some good bitesized info on the matter so I suggest everyone follow him if they can.

 

[JoshYEAH]

Okay, I'll shut up with the scientific junk. I get carried away by geology as geophysics and seismology are my intended fields.

No don't, the science behind this stuff is really interesting and having someone explain what has happened would own.

Turned off the streams for the time being, no further updates. I'd recommend checking back on the BBC about 6pm GMT as that's when they usually do news bulletin updates.

 

[Ryubane]

It struck me a few minutes ago: my best friend's dad had a flight to Japan this morning. I was about to ask if they had heard from him, and it turns out that the earthquake hit 15 minutes (!) before his plane was scheduled to land in Narita. The plane was diverted and it looks like he'll be sleeping on a runway, but it's fine. The same can't be said of the locals.

And the tsunami warning in Hawai'i?

3 feet.

Yeah. So the west coast states are fine.

I'm keeping a close eye on the news.

 

[Nick_Walrus]

8.9 is quite high on the Richter Scale (that's used to measure earthquakes). That alone would have caused enough damage though the tsunami and aftershocks are going to really add to this.

 

[Korusan]

I'm watching this live on AlJazerra; is that a whole fucking building floating down the river?