8.9 earthquake in Japan: tsunami warnings

[IMP]

Another interesting video taken from a helicopter:
http://www.picassodreams.com/picasso_dreams/2011/03/crane-collapses-on-fuel-rods-at-fukushima.html

 

[Astronuc]

Still some healthy aftershocks - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0002dr3.php

Magnitude: 6.1
Date-Time:
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10:54:33 UTC
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 07:54:33 PM at epicenter

Location: 37.417°N, 142.269°E
Depth: 13.8 km (8.6 miles)

Region: Off the East Coast of Honshu, Japan
Distances:
127 km (78 miles) ENE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
152 km (94 miles) SE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
162 km (100 miles) ESE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
294 km (182 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty:
horizontal +/- 13 km (8.1 miles);
depth +/- 4.4 km (2.7 miles)

 

[Astronuc]

Nice summary of the Mag 9 earthquake event.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2011/20110311.php

 

[rhody]

Another heartbreaking story: punishing those caught up in the tragedy because of fear:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8416302/Japan-nuclear-crisis-evacuees-turned-away-from-shelters.html"

Hundreds of people evacuated from towns and villages close to the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant are being turned away by medical institutions and emergency shelters as fears of radioactive contagion catch on.

and

The eight-year-old daughter of Takayuki Okamura was refused treatment for a skin rash by a clinic in Fukushima City, where the family is living in a shelter after abandoning their home in Minamisoma, 18 miles from the crippled nuclear plant. "Just being forced to live in a shelter causes us anxiety," Mr Okamura, 49, said. "The institution's refusal to treat my daughter came as a great shock to us."

Words cannot describe how that young girl must have felt, being refused treatment because of fear on the part of the health care workers assisting in treating those injured.

Rhody...

 

[alt]

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/fears-nuclear-shutdown-could-take-30-years-20110330-1cg9u.html

Mr Katsumata held a press conference after it was reported the radioactive core in a reactor at Fukushima appeared to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, raising fears of a big release of radiation at the site.

I try to be an optimist most times, but can't see much cause for optimism here.

 

[Borek]

To quote other part of the same page:

Richard Lahey, who was the head of safety research for boiling-water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the Fukushima units, said workers appeared to have ''lost the race'' to save the reactor , but there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe.

That means it is more of an economic problem than an ecological one.

 

[Astronuc]

Region - near the east coast of Honshu, Japan - is still getting some good aftershocks.

Mag 6.2
Date-Time:
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 07:15:30 UTC
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 04:15:30 PM at epicenter

Location: 38.954°N, 142.017°E
Depth: 39.6 km (24.6 miles)


Distances:
112 km (69 miles) SE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan
125 km (77 miles) NE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
165 km (102 miles) ENE of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan
414 km (257 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty:
horizontal +/- 14.9 km (9.3 miles); depth +/- 6.7 km (4.2 miles)

 

[Astronuc]

Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_warnings_in_stone

MIYAKO, Japan – Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."

. . . .

 

[turbo]

Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_warnings_in_stone

So sad that ancient knowledge has been allowed to fade. It will be interesting to see if Japan limits reconstruction/rebuilding in damaged areas. Certainly, the US hasn't learned that lesson WRT to hurricanes, allowing people to rebuild in areas that have been devastated many times.

 

[OhDASoSad]

This may be small, but the Tokyo Electronics/Gaming Expo(s) going ahead... I admire the ability to perservere, and this will allow continuity of income. Other major Sony products (their new playstation phone for instance) are not delayed, which is also a good sign for their economy.

Small victories at this point, for a nation that has to still be shocked before mourning can properly begin.

 

[Astronuc]

Mag 7.1 (revised down from 7.4)
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0002ksa.php
Date-Time:
Thursday, April 07, 2011 at 14:32:41 UTC
Thursday, April 07, 2011 at 11:32:41 PM at epicenter

Location: 38.253°N, 141.640°E
Depth: 25.6 km (15.9 miles)

Distances:
66 km (41 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
114 km (70 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan
116 km (72 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
330 km (205 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan

 

[Lancelot59]

Is there no end to this madness? I say we find a planet without separate tectonic plates and move there.

Any new news on the reactor?

 

[Proton Soup]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9iJ3pPuL8

http://www.videonews.com/

Fukushima, Japan - The Japanese government has issued the evacuation order on March 12 for the residents living within the 20 kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Since then, residents have left their homes, and the "no man land" has been out of touch with the rest of the world.

A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report.

He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits.

 

[Borek]

It will be interesting to check health effects of the radiation on these animals. In Czarnobyl exclusion zone animals thrive.

 

[HossamCFD]

Japan raises the Fukushima crisis to level 7

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/12/us-japan-idUSTRE72A0SS20110412?pageNumber=1

They say that nothing happened recently, but their initial prediction of the crisis level was not correct.

I find this rather strange. If the radiation levels were that high from the beginning, wouldn't China or other neighboring countries detect them ? It seems to me that the Japanese are exaggerating a bit.

 

[Borg]

Japan raises the Fukushima crisis to level 7

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/12/us-japan-idUSTRE72A0SS20110412?pageNumber=1

They say that nothing happened recently, but their initial prediction of the crisis level was not correct.

I find this rather strange. If the radiation levels were that high from the beginning, wouldn't China or other neighboring countries detect them ? It seems to me that the Japanese are exaggerating a bit.

The prevailing winds are blowing most of the radiation out to sea. I doubt that China can even detect as much as is being seen in the US (which isn't much).

[URL]http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-191816-galleryV9-nhjp.gif[/URL]

 

[HossamCFD]

Thanks for the very descriptive animation !

 

[Borg]

Thanks for the very descriptive animation !

You're welcome. Note that the animation is only for the first week or so but, the general direction will still tend to be out to sea.

 

[mayeeta]

Abandoned Cattle Near Fukushima

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://youtu.be/eVAorP4J5L4
http://youtu.be/eVAorP4J5L4

Heartbreaking.

 

[robinson]

Not sure which thread this would go in. Politics certainly seems the right place.

British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-play-down-fukushima

 

[Astronuc]

Looking back - 8 months later.

Reflections on Operation Tomodachi (Friendship)
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/around-...apocalypse-japan-8-month-later-020117526.html

 

[rootX]

http://www.npu.go.jp/en/policy/policy06/pdf/20121004/121004_en2.pdf

Verified results of national discussions so far held throughout Japan clearly
indicate that, after the experiences of an accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station and in the ensuing sufferings of many local areas and citizens
including those in Fukushima Prefecture, many people are hoping to “build a
society not dependent on nuclear power”. So do those discussions, on the other
hand, also reveal divergences in their views on how early it could realize and even
whether it could possibly be built.

Phasing out nuclear by 2040