DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Japan hit by a 8.8 Earthquake, Tsunamis follow.

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The Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed cars, trucks, houses and buildings being swept away by tsunami in Onahama city in Fukushima prefecture. Black smoke was seen billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.
Television showed cars bobbing in water along side fishing boats. A 50 cm tsunami hit Japan's northern coast.
"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said.
"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."
US officials said the 8.8-magnitude quake struck about 250 miles (400km) from Tokyo at a depth of 20 miles. The stock market extended its losses after the quake was announced.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
A tsunami warning was in effect for Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and US state of Hawaii.

They just reported a 7.1 earthquake hit just 1 hour after an 8.8 earthquake hit outside northeast Japan.

tragic live pictures right now an airport terminal underwater almost.

History shows us again and again how nature reflects the folly of mannn.

The video is absolutely horrifying.

And here we are in Cleveland complaining about a little snow.

Deeply praying for Japan.

Those poor people. What a horrific thing to have to go through.

You would think that the earthquake and its damage would be bad enough ..... but then the tsunami hits .... and cars, boats, buildings .... all being washed away ..... people drowning ....

I hope I never have to go through anything like that.

An ugly scene for sure!

Best wishes for those involved.

Been trying to get to hawaiin sites (web cams) and all either don't load at all or load VERY slowly.

Wonder if they have been shut down or hit. They were expecting tsunami waves around 8am EST.

Just saw what looked like Mud coming ashore in Japan.. wow, this is bad..

http://hitsunami.info/



First tsunami waves have arrived in Hawaiian islands with initial reports of 1.6 ft tidal rise in Kauai and 2.3 feet rise at Pearl Harbor (via CNN)

Via U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet: At Pearl Harbor a half-meter surge was detected. Initial reports show no damage to ships and piers.

USGS revises Japan earthquake to 8.9 magnitude.

we have a friend there. hoping he's alright, but have not heard anything from him yet.

Man, we have really good friends that retired there after the Marines, and we are always bragging about how good they have it.

I have friends with a daughter in Japan, they are still waiting to hear from her.

Everyone please pray for my boy Juan who is serving our nation in the South Pacific. His family is stationed in Hawaii but he is in the Japan area somewhere. Right now his wife has no idea where they are, at sea, or in port somewhere. The last she knew they were around Okinawa.

King

The only good news is that Japan is one of the most earthquake prepared countries in the world.

To all those who have friends or loved ones in the area, you've got my prayers.

jc

Saw a report they are evacuating an area around one of the nuclear power plants out of concern that the cooling system may not hold up.


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I've heard from a friend in Japan (Yokosuka). It's crazy over there right now. More damage than they thought apparently. Still prepping his sitrep. But so far everyone seems to be doing ok. They were about as prepared for that as they could be I guess.

7th Fleet showing minimal impact so far. A couple of our subs in Guam (my homeport) were damaged. Still working, but gonna need repairs.

If this was truly an 8.9, that would put it pretty darn high on the list of most powerful earthquakes, actually at number 5 on this list from the USGS.

Thoughts and Prayers to all those involved. I started catching initial reports at work this morning around 3 AM.

thanks for the thoughts. just heard back from my girlfriend that our friend over there is ok.

i also have a buddy who is a marine stationed there right now, and according to cnn all u.s. miltary men and women are all accounted for and ok.

Just heard from my buddy that his daughter, stationed in Okinawa is fine. They had a lot of water damage in the area, but everyone is doing well.

I've heard from a couple friends in Japan and all is well for them, though I don't know where they are in comparison to the quake. As well, I have a few friends in Hawaii (Oahu and Maui) that are completely fine as well. Some of the pics from Japan are scary.

I just read something that said it reached the Oregon coast at 7:30am PST with 6-7 foot waves - my guess is that it will cause some minor damage here, but not devastating.

Source

Guam Submarines Moored Safe
From Joint Region Marianas Public Affairs

SANTA RITA, Guam - At approximately 8:00 p.m. local time on March 11, 2011 USS Houston (SSN 713) and USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) mooring lines broke free from the pier at Alpha wharf at Naval Base Guam due to the tsunami wave.

Tug boats from Naval Base Guam responded quickly to the situation and safely moored both submarines.

USS Frank Cable (AS 40) moored at Alpha wharf and USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) remained safely moored throughout the tsunami event.

Local and Federal authorities have been notified.

Just mind numbingly terrible . The wall of water and debris just seems to scour the earth and everything on it .

If you want to read about the science behind what happened, you can read about it here.

Intense stuff. I mean, seeing some of these pictures of houses flowing with water still ablaze is gut-wrenching. But, lucky for a large part of the populace, they know how to build some earthquake-resistant buildings.

Link with pictures

Some pictures from Japan

People should be terrified about the nuclear powerplants.

Apparently the radiation levels at the plant are 1000x normal. Now they're talking about it on CNN. Some expert from the University of Georgia is saying that 1,000x normal still isn't harmful. He doesn't seem to be terribly concerned.

Apparently though the "normal" radiation level is so low that when you increase it 1000 fold it still won't hurt you. 

The danger I think is if the reactor completely melts down or if the storage pool for the irradiated fuel blows up. That would be bad.

#6 looks straight out of a movie . . .


A flotsam and jetsam of death coming straight at you and you can't outrun it.

Radiation Levels Surge Outside Japan Nuclear Plant

March 11, 2011 | Associated Press

TOKYO -- Japan says radiation levels have surged outside a nuclear plant and expands the area subject to evacuation.

Japan's massive earthquake caused a power outage that disabled a nuclear reactor's cooling system, triggering evacuation orders for about 3,000 residents as the government declared its first-ever state of emergency at a nuclear plant.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside one of six boiling water reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal. Hours after the evacuation order, the government announced that the plant in northeastern Japan will release slightly radioactive vapor from the unit to lower the pressure in an effort to protect it from a possible meltdown.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the amount of radioactive element in the vapor would be "very small" and would not affect the environment or human health. "With evacuation in place and the ocean-bound wind, we can ensure the safety," he said at a televised news conference early Saturday.

After the quake triggered a power outage, a backup generator also failed and the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No. 1 reactor, though at least one backup cooling system was being used. The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown.

The agency said plant workers are scrambling to restore cooling water supply at the plant but there is no prospect for immediate success.

Edano said the 40-year-old plant was not leaking radiation. The plant is in Onahama city, about 170 miles northeast of Tokyo.

If the outage in the cooling system persists, eventually radiation could leak out into the environment, and, in the worst case, could cause a reactor meltdown, a nuclear safety agency official said on condition of anonymity, citing sensitivity of the issue.

Another official at the nuclear safety agency, Yuji Kakizaki, said that plant workers were cooling the reactor with a secondary cooling system, which is not as effective as the regular cooling method.

Kakizaki said officials have confirmed that the emergency cooling system -- the last-ditch cooling measure to prevent the reactor from the meltdown -- is intact and could kick in if needed.

"That's as a last resort, and we have not reached that stage yet," Kakizaki added.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the evacuation, ordered by the local government of Fukushima, affects at least 2,800 people. Edano said residents were told to stay at least two miles from the plant and to stay inside buildings.

He said both the state of emergency and evacuation order are precautionary measures.

"We launched the measure so we can be fully prepared for the worst scenario," he said. "We are using all our might to deal with the situation."

Defense Ministry official Ippo Maeyama said the ministry has dispatched dozens of troops trained for chemical disasters to the Fukushima plant in case of a radiation leak, along with four vehicles designed for use in atomic, biological and chemical warfare.

Pineville, La., resident Janie Eudy said her husband, Danny, was working at Fukushima No. 1 when the earthquake struck. After a harrowing evacuation, he called her several hours later from the parking lot of his quake-ravaged hotel.

He and other American plant workers are "waiting to be rescued, and they're in bad shape," she said in a telephone interview.

Danny Eudy, 52, a technician employed by Pasadena, Texas-based Atlantic Plant Maintenance, told his wife that the quake violently shook the plant building he was in. "Everything was falling from the ceiling," she said.

Eudy told his wife that he and other workers were evacuating the plant when the tsunami swept through the area, carrying away homes and vehicles. They retreated so they wouldn't get caught up in the raging water.

"He walked through so much glass that his feet were cut. It slowed him down," she said.

After the water started to recede, Eudy and other workers drove to their hotel, only to find it in shambles.

"Most of the hotel was gone," she said. "He said the roads were torn up and everything was a mess."

His hotel room was demolished along with all of his belongings, so Eudy had to borrow a resident's phone to call his wife early Friday morning. The workers were waiting for daylight but contemplating seeking higher ground in case another big wave hit.

"He sounded like he was in shock. He was scared," Janie Eudy said. "They're totally on their own, trying to just make it."

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said staff were trying to collect more information on what was happening.

At the Fukushima Daiichi site, "They are busy trying to get coolant to the core area," Sheehan said. "The big thing is trying to get power to the cooling systems."

Speaking at the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also said U.S. Air Force planes were carrying "some really important coolant" to the site, but administration officials later said she misspoke. The U.S. offered to send Japan coolant to help with the reactor but the Japanese declined, saying they already had the necessary supplies, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said it also stands ready to provide any technical assistance Japan needs.

High-pressure pumps can temporarily cool a reactor in this state with battery power, even when electricity is down, according to Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer who used to work in the U.S. nuclear industry. Batteries would go dead within hours but could be replaced.

The nuclear reactor was among 10 in Japan shut down because of the earthquake.

The Fukushima plant is just south of the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture, where a fire broke out at another nuclear plant. The blaze was in a turbine building at one of the Onagawa power plants. Smoke could be seen coming out of the building, which is separate from the plant's reactor, Tohoku Electric Power Co. said. The fire has since been extinguished.

Another reactor at Onagawa was experiencing a water leak.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s.

A tsunami warning was issued for a number of Pacific, Southeast Asian and Latin American nations.

At the two-reactor Diablo Canyon plant at Avila Beach, Calif., an "unusual event" -- the lowest level of alert -- was declared in connection with a West Coast tsunami warning. The plant remained stable, though, and kept running, according to the NRC.

URL
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/11/japan-issues-emergency-nuke-plant-leak/

It all really depends on the containment structures. Chernobyl had none, these reactors do have 8ft thick containment structures.

If the earthquake hasn't damaged the structures it won't be catastrophic....

Currently sitting in the Hotel San Martin in Vina del Mar Chile --- seems to be the place to be to watch this thing. We're evacuated to the 4th floor and up (fortunately that's where my room is - unfortunately I'm facing the wrong direction) -- will be switching to a seaside room in a bit.

Beach is closed -- I assume out of an overabundance of caution. TV news cameras set up outside the hotel (this is the biggest beach in Chile -- so it's where the news will come out of tonight). We've got a 6 pack of beer (and free wine/food from the hotel).

Will keep y'all posted.

~Lyuokdea

Be safe man! I enjoy reading your posts on theoretical phyisics and the universe. It would be a great loss to the board.

Take some pictures if you can.

Thanks -- there are some people with much nicer cameras than me (i just have a cell phone cam) but I'll try to throw up some pictures at some point

~Lyuokdea

I can't believe this...I apologize as I have no link for this statement but I heard them saying on the news that some of the areas hit by the Tsunami did not see the water recede and the map of Japan will literally be redrawn as some coastal areas are now part of the sea .

The Nuclear Power plant ordeal is truly terrifying, I'm certainly no expert but It's my understanding that while the cores are protected the rising heat and pressure can indeed put the casing of the core in jeopardy and if it's breached than it's chernobyl all over again except in my understanding much worse.

I have to confess watching and reading about just how devastating this was brought a tear to my eye. Am I the only one who watches or reads or sees the pictures and just asks why there isn't anything I can do to help? I honestly wish I could go in some way to due anything to help (although I know there isn't much I could do anyway)....not even possible to go to Japan right now even if I could afford to try to go help or anything though as literally every airport in Japan is shutdown.

Hearing that this will literally reshape Japan on the map as part of the coastlines were claimed by the sea really puts this into perspective...this is just insane.

The scariest part is that there have also been other earthquakes, one in Hawaii unrelated to Japan quake (not sure of magnitude) and a 5.5 in China near the Myanmar border (also unrelated to Japan quake)...the part about the China one that freaks me out is that they said there were hundreds of lighter tremors in the region for the past couple months before the 5.5 hit and I remember hearing about that happening here in the U.S something like 300 small earthquakes/tremors in Arkansas in the past 4 months or something like that...could that be leading to something bigger as well?



What is going on man.....Haiti and Chile last year, New Zealand (sp?) and Japan this year...and the scary part is that the Chile and Japan quakes were the same exact type of quake (subterranian or whatever they are called) and the Haiti and New Zealand (again I know it's spelled wrong) quakes were the exact same type (happening on the crust or whatever) and they were also similar in magnitude.

I know it's probably some odd coincidence but is it possible that the pattern is related? I don't know anything about that kind of stuff.

You are talking about the ring of fire. Volcanism and earthquakes.

My query, if you heard right that the water is not receding then is that because of the VOLUME of water or did the earth sink or tilt? In other words, did the coastal area land mass dip below sea level?

This could be more catastrophic to Japan than we can imagine. Land is scarce there as it is and if you couple a loss of shoreline with the nightmare of a nuclear meltdown . . . oooh boy . . .

Pretty anticlimactic - never actually saw anything different from a normal wave.

Police overreaction was pretty hilarious though - no less than 30 officers on the 300 feet of beach that we were next to (we were restricted to the 4th floor or higher, but then dozens of them just sat there). There were marines, and local police, and some crazy dudes with orange hats, and guys on horseback....

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

~Lyuokdea

Just wanted to add that anyone who wants to make a quick donation to the Red Cross to help the victims of this earthquake/tsunami, you can donate $10 by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

Red Cross site